Continuity Correction (Yates): what it means and how to read it
In the report: Continuity Correction — Pearson's chi-square with the Yates correction, for a 2 × 2 table only; the row is absent for larger tables.
How to read it
A more cautious version of the test for a 2 × 2 table: its p is a little larger. If Pearson and this row disagree about 0.05, call the result borderline or look at Fisher's Exact Test.
In plain words
A shop owner had a small table: two age groups and two drinks, 40 customers in all. The usual test said age and drink go together, but only just. The Continuity Correction is a more careful version of that test, made for tables with two rows and two columns. It always comes out a little less sure, and here it said the gap could easily be luck. When the two rows disagree like this, she calls the result borderline instead of claiming a link, or looks at Fisher's Exact Test. For bigger tables this row does not appear.
How it is computed
N · (max(0, |ad − bc| − N/2))² / ((a+b)(c+d)(a+c)(b+d))Where you see it
STATS_CHI2— Pearson chi-square test for association between two categorical columns.
Related values
- Likelihood Ratio — The likelihood-ratio chi-square (G²) of the table with the same df as Pearson's; p from the chi-square distribution.
- Fisher's Exact Test — The exact p of a 2 × 2 table, in the two Exact Sig. columns; the value, df and asymptotic columns are empty. The row is absent for larger tables.
- Linear-by-Linear Association — The test of a linear trend between the codes of the two columns, df = 1. Shown only when both columns have codes: numbers, or labels with numbers; text without labels has no such row, as in SPSS.
- F statistic — A ratio of two variance estimates. The larger F, the stronger the evidence against the null hypothesis; its p comes from the F distribution with the two degrees of freedom next to it.
- Degrees of freedom between groups — The first degrees of freedom of F: the number of groups minus 1.
Get it in your sheet
One formula in a cell gives the whole report, Continuity Correction (Yates) included. ALS Stats is a free add-on for Google Sheets™.
Install ALS Stats from Google Workspace Marketplace (opens in a new tab)