Data pertaining to ages of individuals participating in a mentoring program are presented below. Complete a two-tailed, independent samples t-test, with the variances assumed to be equal, and alpha = .05.

Ages of mentoring program participants

Female Male

20 18

12 17

17 19

14 15

18 20

15 16

Female mean = 16 Male mean= 17.5

Female s= 2.90 Male s= 1.87

Step 1: State the H₀ and the H₁.

Step 2: Calculate the df:

Step 3: Identify the critical value for = .05 and state the decision rule.

Step 4: Calculate the obtained value of t.

Step 5: Conclusion