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Szalacha, Erkut, Coll, Alarcon, Fields, and Ceder in 2003 investigated the resea

ID: 3437846 • Letter: S

Question

Szalacha, Erkut, Coll, Alarcon, Fields, and Ceder in 2003 investigated the research hypothesis that Puerto Rican children in the US who report or perceive discrimination will have more mental health problems and higher school-related stress than Puerto Rican children who do not perceive discrimination. The researchers presented the table below with scores on the Reynolds Child Depression Scale (RCDS).

Perceived Discrimination

Yes (n = 36)

No (n = 255)

Variable

m

SD

m

SD

t (289)

RCDS

1.90

.51

1.71

.44

2.39*

Note: *p < .05

Szalcha, L.A., Coll, C.G., Alarcon, O., Fields, J.P.,& Ceder, I. (2003). Discrimination and Puerto Rican childrens' and adolescents' mental health. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 9(2), 141-155.

What would occur if researchers in this problem accepted the null hypothesis for these data only to have other researchers repeatedly reject the null hypothesis when they did similar studies?

Type I error, type II error, power of a test or confidence interval?

Perceived Discrimination

Yes (n = 36)

No (n = 255)

Variable

m

SD

m

SD

t (289)

RCDS

1.90

.51

1.71

.44

2.39*

Explanation / Answer

If the researchers in this problem accepted the null hypothesis for these data only to have other researchers repeatedly reject the null hypothesis when they did similar studies then type II error will occur.

As, type II error is the failure to reject a false null hypothesis.