In a study published in a 2007 issue of the journal Preventive Medicine, researchers found that smokers were more likely to have used candy cigarettes as children than nonsmokers were. When hearing about this study, John responded, "But isn't the smoking status of the person's parents a confounding variable here?" When Karen asked what he meant, John said, "Children whose parents smoke are more likely to become smokers themselves when they become adults."

What else does John need to say in order to explain how the parents' smoking status could be a confounding variable in this study?

Answer and Explanation:

A confounding variable is an extraneous variable that may influence and therefore "confound" the result from an experiment of the independent and dependent variable. Here we could define the explanatory and the response variable which can be likened to the results of the experiment with dependent and independent variables. In this case the explanatory variable is asks whether or not a person used candy cigarettes as a kid and the response variable is eventual smoking in adults. The smoking status of the parents here could be a confounding variable if it is linked to the explanatory and response variables so that it is able to bring an influence too. Therefore, John could say "Children who had parents that smoked have more most likely used candy cigarettes when they were kids"