ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some additional key practical concepts in inferential statistics. Inferential statistics is the name of a field of study devoted to using statistical probability tools to help us think about data. A correlation is a measure of the degree of relationship between two variables. Whether a correlation is "positive" or "negative" has nothing to do with the strength of the correlation. If the correlation is strong, then the two variables are closely related, and knowing one variable will allow us to predict the other variable. Multiple correlation is the prediction of some variable of interest from several more readily measured variables. On the other hand, when statistics are misused or misunderstood, serious errors can result. Misinformation is more harmful than no information. With very good data, it is possible to use multiple regression and multiple correlation to develop models to predict injury occurrences, health behaviors, and success in school or sport.
