Reference no: EM131816730

CBS reported on its website in September 2004: "Should Parents Talk to Their Dying Children About Death? A Swedish study found that parents whose children died of cancer had no regrets about talking to them about death, while some who didn't do so were sorry later. [. . .] Using Sweden's comprehensive cancer and death records, the researchers found 368 children under 17 who had been diagnosed with cancer between 1992 and 1997 and who later died. They contacted the children's parents, and 80% of them filled out a long, anonymous questionnaire. Among the questions: 'Did you talk about death with your child at any time?' Of the 429 parents who answered that, about one-third said they had done so, while two-thirds had not. None of the 147 who did so regretted talking about death. Among those who had not talked about death, 69 said they wished they had."16

a. The researchers focused on two categorical variables: Tell what they are and which is explanatory and which is response.

b. Construct a two-way table to classify the 429 parents in the survey, with the explanatory variable in rows and response variable in columns.

c. Altogether, 16% of the 429 respondents experienced regrets. If 16% of the 147 who had talked about death with their children had experienced regrets (instead of 0%), how many would that have been?

d. If only 16% of the 282 parents who had not talked about death had experienced regrets (instead of 69/282 24%), how many would that have been?

e. If we want to compare the results to what they would have been if equal percentages experienced regrets for parents who did and did not talk about death with their children, which of these is a better summary?

1. Results are a bit different from what they would have been if equal percentages experienced regrets among parents who did and did not talk about death with their children.

2. Results are very different from what they would have been if equal percentages experienced regrets

among parents who did and did not talk about death with their children.

f. When the researchers decided to make the questions anonymous, were they mainly concerned with data production, displaying and summarizing data, probability, or statistical inference?

g. If researchers want to use the results of their survey to conclude that all parents of dying children should consider talking about death with their children, are they mainly concerned with data production, displaying and summarizing data, probability, or statistical inference?