Question

A study finds male children born to women who smoke during pregnancy run a higher risk of criminal behaviors that last into adulthood than male children born to women who do not smoke.

a) Determine whether this study is observational or experimental. ANSWER: OBSERVATIONAL

b) What are the groups that are being compared? ANSWER: WOMEN WHO SMOKE DURING PREGNANCY VS WOMEN WHO DON'T SMOKE DURING PREGNANCY
c) What is the explanatory variable and what is the response variable? ANSWER: EXPLANATORY: WOMEN SMOKING DURING PREGANCY VS WOMEN WHO DO NOT. RESPONSE: RISK OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR AS ADULTS
d) Find a confounding variable. ANSWER: SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS & AREA OF NEIGHBORHOOD
e) Can we say smoking during pregnancy is responsible for higher criminal behavior? Justify your answer. ANSWER: NO

Just want to double check to see if these answers are correct and please explain why if possible. Please answer all.

Answer 1

(a) This is an observational study because we need to find such women having a male children as well as those mother who was smoking during pregnancy. This experiment should conduct in a controlled way.For this study we just need to find such mothers.That is why it is observational study.

(b) Criminal behaviors of male children in adulthood whose mothers were smoking during pregnancy vs Criminal behaviors of male child in adulthood whose mothers were not smoking.

(c) Explanatory Variable : Women smoking during pregnancy vs Women do not smoking during pregnancy.

Response Variable : Criminal activities of male Children in adulthood.

(d) Confounded effect : socio-economic status and area of neighborhood.

(e) After collecting sample from difference sources we can use different test like test of independence etc or otherwise we apply different designs techniques to check whether any relation exists or not.