Question

Does eating dinner with their families improve students’ academic performance? According to an ABC News article, “Teenagers who eat with their families at least five times a week are more likely to get better grades in

school.”19 This finding was based on a sample survey conducted by researchers at Columbia University.

Explain clearly why such a study cannot establish a cause-and-effect

relationship. Suggest a lurking variable that may be confounded

with whether families eat dinner together.

Short answer

It impossible to precisely identify causative and effective relationships in such a sample.

Step-by-step solution

Given information

Teenagers who eat with their family at least five times per week are more likely to excel academically.

Concept

Confounding occurs when the effects of two variables on the same response variable cannot be distinguished from one another.

Explanation

Confounding variables not included in the analysis, such as differences in output time between laptops, total emissions from other nearby items that may affect the laptop atmosphere and produce higher temperatures for some laptops than others, make it impossible to precisely identify causative and effective relationships in such a sample.