Partial Correlation - Semipartial Correlation (part Correlation)

Semipartial Correlation (part Correlation)

The semipartial (or part) correlation statistic is similar to the partial correlation statistic. Both measure variance after certain factors are controlled for, but to calculate the semipartial correlation one holds the third variable constant for either X or Y, whereas for partial correlations one holds the third variable constant for both. The semipartial correlation measures unique and joint variance while the partial correlation measures unique variance. The semipartial (or part) correlation can be viewed as more practically relevant "because it is scaled to (i.e., relative to) the total variability in the dependent (response) variable." Conversely, it is less theoretically useful because it is less precise about the unique contribution of the independent variable. Although it may seem paradoxical, the semipartial correlation of X with Y is always less than or equal to the partial correlation of X with Y.

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