Chi-Square Test Loretta Kunch Capella University Master of Psychology Spring 2009

Problem Statement

A total of 88 male/female adults were in the dataset comparing social problems and dropout rates. The datasets were generated from the course SPSS database. The measurement scale includes a Bar Chart. The graph illustrates the dataset in visually, easily to understand, relationships between the data variables. This dataset does not identify age, education levels, or demographic data. Comparing specific age groups, academic levels, and demographics provides a sound population sample to measure. For example, scoring an18 year old male student from the inner city, living in a single parent home to that of an 18 year old urban student, living in a traditional family nucleus, with different social problems is not clean data. We want to test the same demographic data and draw comparisons. However, the Bar Graph illustrates a positive correlation between social problems and school dropout rate. Does this measure accurately identify data from within the same age group, academic level, and demographics? I would advance the position that it does not.

Alpha is the probability of making a Type I error (rejecting the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is true). The alpha level is defined as the probability of what is called a Type I error in statistics. That is the probability of rejecting H0 when in fact it was true. Now, why should we select an alpha level of .05? If we are really worried about the possibility that we will reject H0 when it is true, then why don't we use a smaller alpha level like .01 or even .001? That would minimize the change that we would incorrectly reject H0. The thing is that there is another error we could make (called a Type II error). That is the error of not rejecting H0 when it is false. If you think about it, the stricter the criterion you set for rejecting H0 (i.e., the smaller the alpha level), the more likely it is that there will be cases where we should reject H0, but we don't. The exact probability of a Type II error (failing to reject H0 when it is actually false) cannot be determined just from the alpha level. There is other information you need (which is not important here). The main thing is that as you set a more stringent (smaller) alpha level, like .01 or .001, (which decreases the probability of making a Type I error) you increase the likelihood of making a Type II error. Past experience has suggested that an alpha level of .05 is a good compromise between the likelihoods of making Type I and Type II errors (Thorndyke, E.L., 2009). Assumptions: -The dependent variable is normally distributed. -The two groups have approximately equal variance on the dependent variable. -The two groups are independent of one another. Hypotheses: Null: The means of the two groups are not significantly different. Alternate: The means of the two groups are significantly different The purpose of the Chi Square is to compare the distribution of numbers among a group of categories with a hypothesized distribution. The Chi Square distribution is a mathematical

distribution that is used directly or indirectly in many tests of significance. The most common use of the chi square distribution is to test differences among proportions. Although this test is by no means the only test based on the chi square distribution, it has come to be known as the chi square test. The chi square distribution has one parameter, its degrees of freedom (df). It has a positive skew; the skew is less with more degrees of freedom. As the df increase, the chi square distribution approaches a normal distribution. The mean of a chi square distribution is its df. The mode is df - 2 and the median is approximately df - 0 .7. Chi-square is the sum of the squared difference between observed (o) and the expected (e) data (or the deviation, d), divided by the expected data in all possible categories (Snedecor & Cochran, 1989). The chi-square test is used to test if a sample of data came from a population with a specific distribution. The chi-square test is defined for the hypothesis: H0: The data follow a specified distribution. Ha: The data do not follow the specified distribution. Test Statistic: A test of goodness of fit establishes whether or not an observed frequency distribution differs from a theoretical distribution. The null hypothesis attempts to show that no variation exists between variables or does so by chance. In this instance, social problems and dropout rates indicate that male participants with social problems have a higher dropout rate than female participants with social problems. Further, male participants with social problems score higher dropout rates than both male and female participants who do not suffer from social problems. The Female dataset indicates that there is little variation between those with social problems and those without social problems. Specific social problem variance was not indicated (broken homes, poverty, drugs, gangs, etc). Specifically, the same numbers of male and female subjects were not measured.

Results

Crosstabs
Case Processing Summary Cases Valid N socprob * dropout 88 Percent 100.0% N 0 Missing Percent .0% N 88 Total Percent 100.0%

socprob * dropout Crosstabulation dropout 0 socprob 0 Count Expected Count % within socprob % within dropout % of Total 1 Count Expected Count % within socprob % within dropout % of Total Total Count Expected Count % within socprob % within dropout % of Total 73 69.1 93.6% 93.6% 83.0% 5 8.9 50.0% 6.4% 5.7% 78 78.0 88.6% 100.0% 88.6% 1 5 8.9 6.4% 50.0% 5.7% 5 1.1 50.0% 50.0% 5.7% 10 10.0 11.4% 100.0% 11.4% Total 78 78.0 100.0% 88.6% 88.6% 10 10.0 100.0% 11.4% 11.4% 88 88.0 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Chi-Square Tests Asymp. Sig. Value Pearson Chi-Square Continuity Correction Likelihood Ratio Fisher's Exact Test Linear-by-Linear Association N of Valid Cases 16.531 88 1 .000
b

Exact Sig. (2-sided)

Exact Sig. (1-sided)

df
a

(2-sided) 1 1 1 .000 .000 .001

16.721

12.673 11.305

.001

.001

a. 1 cells (25.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.14. b. Computed only for a 2x2 table

Symmetric Measures Value Nominal by Nominal Phi Cramer's V N of Valid Cases .436 .436 88 Approx. Sig. .000 .000

References Snedecor, George W. and Cochran, William G. (1989), Statistical Methods, Eighth Edition, Iowa State University Press. Thorndyke, E.L.(2009). Alpha Levels. Retrieved May 14, 2009 from, http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/Faculty/Markman/PSY418/Questions/alpha.html