In a study published in a 2007 issue of the journal Preventive Medicine, researc

Question

In a study published in a 2007 issue of the journal Preventive Medicine, researchers found that smokers were more likely to have used candy cigarettes as children than nonsmok- ers were. When hearing about this study, John responded, "But isnt the smoking status of the persons parents a confounding variable here?" When Karen asked what he meant, John said "Children whose parents smoke are more likely to become smokers themselves when they become adults." What else does John need to say in order to explain how the parents' smoking status could be a confounding variable in this study?

Explanation / Answer

It is required to demonstrate how the confounding variable (parents smoking) affects both the independent variable (having candy cigarettes as children) and the dependent variable (being a smoker as adult).

So, what John needs to say is that smoker parents are likely to cause children to imitate them and have candy cigarettes. As he has already said, later, they are also likely to become smokers as adults.

This would show that having candy cigarettes as children is correlated to smoking as adults, but there is no causality between the two. Smoker parents are actually causing both these habits.

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