Research Report 1 Data Files
SOWK 300 Computer Applications in the Social Sciences Spring 2011
LaShauna M. Crayton T TH 02
HYPOTHESIS
In this project, I researched how marital status and
income relates. The respondents that are married will
have income than those that are separated. One reason
could be that the marry respondents has more than one
income source versus the respondents who has never
marry. The dependent variable is income and its values
are as follows: less than 1000 – 2500 or more, although
some of the respondents refused the question and some
also didn’t know their income. The independent variable
is marital status and the values are married, widowed,
divorced, separated, and never.
Another variable that was measure in this research is the
control variable, which is race. The values of the control
variable are: white, blacks and others
RATIONALE
When married you have help with a lot of things; it’s more
than you taking care of things alone. You have a spouse
that you depend on, in a relationship you are able to split
bills in half and to also take up the slack when the other
person is lacking. A married couple income doubles each
year because in their household there are two income
sources coming to one house. The respondents that are
widows should also have a higher income than independent
(never married) respondents. I’m sure that their spouse had
a job with benefits that left them a stipend once they
deceased. The respondents that are independent income
are very low because they don’t have any help; its only one
income source in the household. Race has a big effect on
the relationship between income and the marital status of
some
respondents. Now that race is included you can see which
race has the highest income in each marital status. The
Caucasians respondents that are married will have the
highest income; they tends to find good high paying jobs
and most of the Caucasians population are further their
education to get better jobs
BIVARIATE GRAPH 1
In the income category of 25000 or more, 47.4 of the respondents
reported that they were married, 13.9 of them were widows, 32.4 of them
were divorced, 22.9 of the where separated and 32.6 of them where never
married. .5 of the married respondents stated that they have an income
of a 1000 or less, 1.4 of the respondents were widows, 1.7 were divorced,
4.1 were separated, and 2.6 were never married. 48.2 of the Caucasian
respondents reported that they have an income
of 25000 or more, while 14.5 of the respondents are widows and 33.4
divorced. 29.3 of them are separated and 35.2 have never been married.
Figure_1.The total family income by marital
status
MULTIVARIATE GRAPH 1
The black respondents in the same income category
36.8 of them informed that they income is about 25000 or more, 9.1
of them are widows, 26.4 are divorced, 13.4 are separated, and
21.1 has never been married. Most of the respondents that
reported that they had an income of 25000 or more were in the
married category. The married category had a higher percentage
in almost every category. Also both the black and Caucasians
respondents that were married also had a higher percentage in the
top dollars. The respondents that had never been married had a
high percentage in the 25000 or more category.
Conclusions
The individuals that took this survey were mostly
successful in life. My hypothesis was right that the
respondents that were married would have a higher income
than those who never been married. As I stated before, the
responds from those who never been married were very
high, my rationale were also right because the respondents
that are married do have a someone to lean on, their
spouse. The results of the respondents that never been
married were only 15.7 respond off to be tied with the
married respondents. All the results were very shocking to
me, I would have thought that the percentage of the
never been married responds would be low in the income
range 25000 or more. In conclusion, I
guess that if a person really wants to make top dollars they
would do whatever it takes to have a
high income. The people that have help or some kind of
benefits have a greater advantage in
having a higher income than those who are independent.
Benefits could consist of a child support
check or even social security.
Caucasians Blacks
Figure 1 Total Income by Marital Status Controlling for
Race
References
1. GSS Database