Project 5 research report 1

Running head: SPSS Research Report on Smoking

Project #5, SPSS Research Report on Smoking Habits

Lathaniel F. Mills

SOWK 300, Section 1 TTH

Ms McArthur

March 30, 2010

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Abstract

This research report takes a look at the smoking habits of college students. With this paper we
will present a bivariate and multivariate hypothesis and present a rationale behind it. Then we
will show the results of the data by looking at the SPSS data in the form of APA style tables.
Last we will discuss all the data and the paper itself. This should make for good information to
those trying to learn about how people deal with bad habits.
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Hypothesis

The first thing we will look at is the variables that we are measuring when it comes to the
smoking habits of college students. The independent variable of this study is has the respondent
ever tried to quit smoking, and the values for the independent variable is yes, and no. The
dependent variable for this research project is during the past thirty days, on how many
times(days) have you smoked a cigarette, and the values for the this variable is 0 times, 1 to 9,
and 10 to 30 times. Last we look at the control variable, which the sex of the respondents and the
values being male and female.

When starting this report I had to determine my hypothesis for how I felt the data will come out.
When looking at the relationship between the independent and the dependent variable. What I
wanted to study and look at was did theses students try to quit, and were they taking the steps to
quit. So I came up with the hypothesis a respondent who is trying to quit smoking is less likely to
smoke on the regular. I did on the other did not think this was enough to be a sufficient study,
and this is why I introduced the control variable to see how the data would play out. So my
multivariate hypothesis is a higher percent of females smokes less when trying to quit then
males. Both finding should make for interesting data.

Rationale

My reasoning behind my hypothesis is that I understand that smoking is a very addictive habit,
but very dangerous also. I feel like the time has come that people realize that sooner rather then
later you have to stop smoking. That is why I feel like people that are trying to quit smoking are
going to not smoke on the regular. This not to say that they will stop all together, but they will
slowly lower the frequency at which they smoke. I only hope that these college students realize
that they have to stop smoking cigarettes.

When it comes to my multivariate hypothesis I applied the same reasoning for my bivariate
hypothesis. I just took a closer look at the bivariate relationship and added the respondent sex in
the equation. My rationale behind this is that women generally take better care of there health,
and think long term rather then the here and now pleasures of life. That’s why I feel that a higher
percentage of female respondents that are trying to quit smoking are less likely to smoke on the
regular then male respondents. I think the data will show my hypotheses to be right.
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Results

Table 1

R’s who have tried to quit smoking or not by R frequency of cigarette smoked (%)

R’s who have tried to quit or not

# of cigarettes smoke Yes No

0 times 46.1 85.9

1 to 9 times 13.1 8.0

10 to 30 times 40.9 6.1

(N) 35.1 64.9

Source: The National College Health Risk Behavior Survey, 1995

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Table 2

R’s who have tried to quit smoking by R’s frequency of cigarette smoked by R’s Gender (%)

R’s who have tried to quit smoking

# of cigarettes smoked Yes No

Male respondents

0 times 45.8 83.9

1 to 9 times 15.3 9.7

10 to 30 times 38.9 6.4

(N) 35.2 64.8

Female Respondents

0 times 46.4 87.1

1 to 9 times 11.6 6.9

10 to 30 times 42.0 6.0

(N) 35.0 65.0

Source: The National College Health Risk Behavior Survey, 1995

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Discussion

Now that the data has been presented in the table we are able to see how the data has come out.
When we look at the bivariate relationship we see that 46.1 percent of the respondents that have
tried to quit said yes to smoking in the past thirty days. In the next category we see that 13.1
percent of the respondents said yes to smoking 1 to 9 times in the past thirty days. The last group
we see that 40.9 percent of the respondents said yes to smoking 10 to 30 times in the past thirty
days. They data show that we were right in assuming that respondents that are trying to quit
smoking is less likely to smoke on the regular. We see that the highest percent of respondents
that have tried to quit smoking said yes to not smoking in the past thirty days. This is good
because we see that college students are making the attempt to quit, even though it is a very hard
thing to do.

Next we look at the results of the multivariate relationship. Remember for the multivariate
relationship we took the bivariate relationship and added a controlled variable which was R’s
gender. The data shows that 45.8 percent of the male respondents said yes to not smoking at all
in the past thirty days, compared to 46.4 of the female respondents who answer yes. The next
category had 15.3 percent of the male respondents said yes to smoking 1 to 9 times in the past
thirty days, compared to 11.6 percent of the female respondents who answer yes. The last
category had 38.9 percent of the male respondents said yes to smoking 10 to 30 times in the
pasted thirty days, compared to 42 percent of the female respondents who answer yes. We see
that our multivariate hypothesis is also correct in saying that females who have tried to quit
smoking are less likely to smoke on the regular then male respondents. I feel like this is true
because women tend to take better care of their health then men.

With this research project I set out to take a health risk of college students. I ran across smoking
on the yrbscol.dat on the social work server and found the variables I needed. I picked rather or
not the respondent had tried to quit smoking as my independent variable, and how often they
smoked in the past thirty days as my dependent variable. When it came to my multivariate
hypothesis we added gender as the control variable. The data presented by this research showed
that people who want to quit smoking decrease the frequency they smoke cigarettes. The data
also showed that more women then men take quitting smoking more then men do. Hopefully
more people will take their health more serious and will stop smoking altogether.
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References

undergraduate college students. (1997). The National College Heath Risk Behavior
Survey. MMWR, 46(6). Retrieved from yrbscol.dat database.