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A Statistical Trap Associated with Family Size

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Bill Bytheway
Bill Bytheway
Affiliation:
Statistical Research Unit in Sociology, University of Keele
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Extract

A recent paper published in this journal (Poole & Kuhn, 1973) has reported that ‘a relatively large family appeared to be no impediment to the educational achievements of middle-class children’. This finding, however, is based upon an analysis which fell into a relatively unknown statistical trap. Poole & Kuhn are only the latest in a long line of victims of this trap and some of their predecessors are reviewed below.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , January 1974 , pp. 67 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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