SPSS® 12.0 Command Syntax Reference

Pairwise Comparisons of Proportions and Means: COMPARETEST Subcommand
/COMPARETEST TYPE= {PROP} ALPHA= {0.05 }
{MEAN} {significance level}
ADJUST= {BONFERRONI} ORIGIN=COLUMN
{NONE }
The SIGTEST subcommand has the following specifications:
CTABLES 401
TYPE The type of pairwise comparison. The specification is required. To compare proportions
when the test variable in the rows is categorical, choose PROP. To compare
means when the test variable in the rows is scale, choose MEAN.
ALPHA The significance level for the test. The specification must be greater than 0 and less
than 1. The default is 0.05.
ADJUST The method for adjusting p values for multiple comparisons. Valid options are
NONE and BONFERRONI. If ADJUST is not specified, the Bonferroni correction is
used.
ORIGIN The direction of the comparison. This specification will determine whether column
means (proportions) or row means (proportions) are being compared. In SPSS
11.5, only COLUMN is supported.
Example
CTABLES /TABLE AGECAT BY MARITAL
/CATEGORIES VARIABLES=AGECAT MARITAL TOTAL=YES
/COMPARETEST TYPE=PROP ALPHA=.01.
Age
category
Less than 25
25 to 34
35 to 44
45 to 54
55 to 64
65 or older
Comparisons of Column Proportions a
Comparisons of Column Proportions a
Marital status
Married Widowed Divorced Separated
Never
married
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
B A B C D
B B B A B C D
B E B E A B C E B
B E B E
E E E
E A C D E E
Results are based on two-sided tests with significance level .01. For each significant pair, the key of
the category with the smaller column proportion appears under the category with the larger column
proportion.
a. Tests are adjusted for all pairwise comparisons within each innermost subtable using the
Bonferroni correction.
• The table of counts is identical to that shown in the example for chi-square above.
• The comparison output shows a number of predictable pairs for marital status among
different age groups that are significant at the 0.01 level specified with ALPHA in the
command.