Research Tips

Omitted Variables

When trying to establish the extent to which some variables influence others using techniques such as regression analysis or structural equation modeling, it’s important to ensure you haven’t left out an important variable. Leaving out a variable will not only reduce the amount of variance in the dependent variable you are able to explain, it can also make a variable that you have included appear to be more important than it actually is if it is correlated with the one you’ve left out. Reviewing previous research on a topic can help ensure that you don’t inadvertently leave out any important variables, as can doing some preliminary qualitative research prior to collecting quantitative data.