Pearson’s Correlation

In SPSS:

  • After entering the data:
  • Click analyze
  • Click Correlate
  • Click bivariate
  • Put dependent variable (v6) into variables box and independent variable (v35)
  • Click OK

In RStudio:

  • Type syntax to find correlation between variables:
    • z <-y[is.na(y$v6)==0 & is.na(y$v35)==0,]
    • cor(z$v35, z$v6)
  • Highlight both lines and click run

Correlation (r) is measured between -1 and 1.

The correlation between family involvement and education attainment is r = -0.025. Family involvement represents the dependent variable and education attainment represents the independent variable. This represents a weak negative correlation between the dependent and independent variable.