Take Home Exercise #1 Answers

Will Preschool Kids Suffer If Mother Works? (Ordinal variable)

Mode = 3: Most (42%) Americans disagree that preschool kids suffer if their mothers work.

Median = 3: About half of Americans strongly agree or agree that preschool kids suffer if their mothers (48%), and about half of Americans strongly disagree or disagree that preschool kids suffer if their mothers (52%) (In this case the true median is category 3 – disagree – but at category three you reach 90% of the sample. At category two (agree) you are almost at 50% (48%). So I would make that the median in my interpretation, so as to not mislead the public.)

To What Extent Is Teen Sex Before Marriage Ok? (Ordinal variable)

Mode = 1: Most Americans (73%) think teen sex before is always wrong.

Median = 1: Over half of Americans think teen sex before is always wrong (73%), and about 27% think it is almost always wrong, sometimes wrong, or not wrong at all. (In this case a strict interpretation of the median would be misleading -- i.e., if you said that about half of all Americans think it is always wrong, and about half think something else. It is much more polarized than that.)

Number of TV Hours Viewed Daily (interval variable)

Mode = 2: Most Americans watch 2 hours of TV a day (28%).

Median = 2: About half of Americans watch up to 2 hours of TV a day (55%), and about half watch more than 2 hours a day (45%).

Mean = 2.97: The average amount of TV that Americans watch is almost 3 hours a day.