The 1989 Teenage Attitudes and Practices Survey (see Ref. 2) obtained completed questionnaires, either by telephone or mail, from a randomly selected group of 9,965 12-18-year-olds living in households across the country.
One type of question asked the teenagers being interviewed about the perceived behavior of their peers. The teenagers answering the questions are classified as
One question was, "Do your peers care about keeping their weight down?" The data shown are the population projections (in thousands) calculated from the sample responses.
a. Why would a question be formed in terms of peer behavior rather than as a direct question to the person being interviewed?
b. Approximately how many teenagers in the United States never smoked (as of 1989)?
c. What proportion of teenagers thought their peers cared a lot about keeping their weight down?
d. Approximately how many teenage current smokers were there in the United States in 1989? What proportion of them thought their peers cared a lot about keeping their weight down?