1. Child care hours:

The China Health and Nutrition Survey aims to examine the effects of the health, nutrition, and family planning policies and programs implemented by national and local governments. One of the variables collected on the survey is the number of hours parents spend taking care of children in their household under age 6 (feeding, bathing, dressing, holding, or watching them). In 2006, 487 females and 312 males were surveyed for this question. On average, females reported spending 31 hours with a standard deviation of 30 hours, and males reported spending 16 hours with a standard deviation of 21 hours.

1. Calculate a 95% confidence interval for the average number of hours that Chinese males spend taking care of their children under age 6. Use Minitab. Provide an interpretation for your confidence interval.

2. Calculate a 95% confidence interval for the average number of hours that Chinese females spend taking care of their children under age 6. Use Minitab. Provide an interpretation for your confidence interval.

3. Was it ok to use Minitab for this problem? In other words, were the sample size requirements met to use the theory-based method? Explain.

4. Comment on whether these confidence intervals suggest a significant difference between the two population parameters.