Question

A Massachusetts study of teens found that there is a moderately strong association between the number of hours of physical activity and scores on English and Language Arts state tests.

a. Explain in this context what “moderately strong association” means.

b. Hoping to improve student performance, the school board passed a resolution urging parents to increase the number of hours that students are physically active. Do you agree or disagree with the school board’s reasoning? Explain. Make sure to comment on at least one other variable that might be influencing this association

Answer 1

a) Moderately strong association means the value of correlation coefficient is positive but it is less than or equal to 0.5.

b) Before going to any concluding remark we should test significance of correlation coefficient even though there is positive correlation. We can consider the other variables as number of study hours, students IQ level, etc.