ABSTRACT
A correlation coefficient indicates the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables. This chapter presents a study whose participants were a volunteer sample of full-time undergraduate students at a small, private, liberal arts college in the South. Depression was symptomatology measured by using the CES-D. Higher scores indicate greater levels of social connectedness and belongingness. The names of correlations can sometimes be confusing. Often when researchers are talking about a correlation coefficient, they simply use the word correlation and drop the word coefficient. The most widely used correlation coefficient is the Pearson r. When it is positive in value, the relationship is direct. When the value of the Pearson r is negative, the relationship is inverse. In an inverse relationship, the closer r is to -1.00, the stronger the relationship; the closer it is to.00, the weaker the relationship.
