Chapter 8: Problem 11
Five years ago \(3.9 \%\) of children in a certain region lived with someone other than a parent. A sociologist wishes to test whether the current proportion is different. Perform the relevant test at the \(5 \%\) level of significance using the following data: in a random sample of 2,759 children, 119 lived with someone other than a parent.
Short Answer
Step by step solution
Identify the Hypotheses
Collect and Analyze the Sample Data
Calculate the Test Statistic
Determine the Critical Value or p-value
Make a Decision
Conclusion
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Key Concepts
These are the key concepts you need to understand to accurately answer the question.
Proportion Hypothesis
- The null hypothesis ( H_0 ) for our case was: the current proportion of children living with someone other than a parent is still 3.9%, or p = 0.039 .
- The alternative hypothesis ( H_a ), on the other hand, questions this status quo and suggests a change. For a two-tailed test, it is that the proportion is not 3.9%, written as p ≠0.039 .
Significance Level
- A significance level of \(0.05\), or 5%, is commonly used, as in our example.
- This means there's a 5% risk of concluding a difference exists when there isn't one, effectively a 5% chance of making a Type I error.
- This threshold helps in determining your critical values, where you'll see whether the null hypothesis deserves rejection. Setting a proper significance level is crucial because it strikes a balance between Type I and Type II errors.
Z-Test
- To perform a Z-test for a proportion, you calculate a Z-statistic using the formula: \[ z = \frac{\hat{p} - p_0}{\sqrt{\frac{p_0 (1-p_0)}{n}}} \]
- Here, \( \hat{p} \) is the sample proportion, \( p_0 \) is the population proportion, and \( n \) is the sample size.
Sample Proportion
- The sample proportion, denoted \(\hat{p}\), is calculated by dividing the number of successes (children living with non-parents here) by the total sample size.
- For instance, in our exercise, it was \(\hat{p} = \frac{119}{2759} \approx 0.0431\).