umption. The correlation was a strong negative, proving our hypothesis correct. The probability was an extremely low 0.000 making the correlation highly statistically significant.The next theory we tested with this new measure of alcohol was that divorced people lose many of their social ties, such as in-laws, spouse, relatives, and even children after a divorce. Often they are lonely and may turn to alcohol to kill the time or even as an attempt of meeting new people. We hypothesized that states with higher percents of divorced people would have higher levels of alcohol consumption. In order to test these ideas we once again used the measure of alcohol as the dependent variable and used percent divorced, the percent of those fifteen and over who currently are divorced as the independent variable operationalized. These are the results:Scatterplot II: States Percent Divorced and Gallons of Alcohol Consumed Per PersonThe results of the scatterplot supported our theory. States with higher percents of divorced people had higher rates of alcohol consumption. The correlation was strongly positive, while the probability was extremely low, in our favor. Also, the results were highly statistically significant. Finally, we looked at a measure of social stratification and formed a theory based on it. We theorized that poor people often do not have as many social ties as wealthier people. They often lack the money to join clubs, attend parties, and buy nice clothing. Sometimes they experience less status expectations and role strain and therefore may see drinking as a completely normal way to spend their time. We then hypothesized that states with higher percents of poor families will have higher levels of alcohol consumption. Again the measure of drinking was the dependent variable. The independent variable was the percent of poor families, or rather the percent of families below poverty level, in each state. Here are the results...
