Question

A study is conducted of the relationship between a newborn’s weight and the amount of cigarette smoking by the mother. A strong, negative relationship is found; that is, the more the mother smokes, the smaller the baby tends to be. Give at least 2 plausible explanations of this result.

Answer 1

Given that we got a strong negative relationship between a newborn's weight and the amount of cigarette smoking by the mother. We can identify a negative relationship between two variables by observing the sign of coefficient in regression. A negative coefficient(slope) in the regression equation implies a negative relationship between two variables.

We know that smoking is harmful to health. Therefore smoking at the time of pregnancy affect badly in the health of both mother and baby.

Smoking reduced oxygen supply due to carbon monoxide and nicotine and it decreased fetal movements in the womb for at least an hour after smoking one cigarette. It also results in impaired development and working of the placenta. All of these retarded growth and development. Smoking also makes changes in the baby’s brain and lungs. Smoking also increased the risk of premature birth. All these are plausible explanations of this result.