

This "quick start" guide shows you how to carry out a point-biserial correlation using SPSS Statistics, as well as how to interpret and report the results from this test. Alternately, you could use a point-biserial correlation to determine whether there is an association between cholesterol concentration, measured in mmol/L, and smoking status (i.e., your continuous variable would be "cholesterol concentration", a marker of heart disease, and your dichotomous variable would be "smoking status", which has two categories: "smoker" and "non-smoker").

It is a special case of the Pearson’s product-moment correlation, which is applied when you have two continuous variables, whereas in this case one of the variables is measured on a dichotomous scale.įor example, you could use a point-biserial correlation to determine whether there is an association between salaries, measured in US dollars, and gender (i.e., your continuous variable would be "salary" and your dichotomous variable would be "gender", which has two categories: "males" and "females"). Point-Biserial Correlation using SPSS Statistics IntroductionĪ point-biserial correlation is used to measure the strength and direction of the association that exists between one continuous variable and one dichotomous variable.
