Question

June is interested in looking at whether social media use predicts feelings of loneliness and found there was a positive relationship between the two variables. However, she finds that after controlling for the amount of time a person spends with friends per week, social media use was no longer associated with feelings of loneliness. Which of the following is the correct interpretation of this finding?

The amount of time spent with friends is a third-variable problem.

Answer 1

The amount of time spent with friends is a third-variable problem.

Step-by-step explanation:

Third variable problem is a term that describes a type of mix up or confused conclusion where by, third variable leads to a confound causal relationship between two other variables.

In this case, June found that social media use is actually not associated with the feeling of loneliness, because the third variable is actually the cause or have the direct relationship to the feeling of loneliness.