Question

correlation measures the degree to which two variables are related to one another.

Here are the definitions of the three possibilities:

• Positive correlations: In this type of correlation, both variables increase or decrease at the same time. A correlation coefficient close to +1.00 indicates a strong positive correlation.
• Negative correlations: This type of correlation indicates that as the amount of one variable increases, the other decreases (and vice versa). A correlation coefficient close to -1.00 indicates a strong negative correlation.
• No correlation: This indicates no relationship between the two variables. A correlation coefficient of 0 indicates no correlation.

Values range from -1 to 1. The closer to -1 or 1 the stronger the correlation. The closer to 0 the weaker it is. Correlation is a term that refers to the strength of a relationship between two variables where a strong, or high, correlation means that two or more variables have a strong relationship with each other while a weak or low correlation means that the variables are hardly related. Correlation analysis is the process of studying the strength of that relationship with available statistical data.

Example: A recent study of marriage and education found a strong negative correlation between the level of education and the divorce rate. Data from the National Survey of Family Growth show that as education level increases among women, the divorce rate for first marriages decreases.

I did a study asking community members how safe they felt in their neighborhood (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 = not at all safe to 5=extremely safe). I also asked the same community members how often they used their community park (on a scale of 1=never to 5=always). I ran the statistics and my correlation is .789. Is this a negative or positive correlation? And what does it show (write it out like in the example above about the direction of each variable and what that means)

Answer 1

Correlation 0.789 is closer to 1 indicates strong postive correlation between community feels safe in their neighborhood and community used their community park.

As increases in feel safe in their neighborhood than also thier increases community members used to community park.

Thanks