What is MANOVA?

1 Answer
Nov 29, 2015

A MANOVA is a statistical test; it is the same as an ANOVA test but with multiple dependent variables.

Explanation:

MANOVA stands for multivariate analysis of variance. It tests if there is a significant difference between the means of multiple groups.

The dependent variables are continuous and the independent variables are categorical. The MANOVA uses the covariance-variance between variables to test for the difference between vectors of means. This is in comparison to an ANOVA which tests for differences between means.

Because the MANOVA is designed to handle multiple dependent variables at one time, you can run one MANOVA instead of multiple ANOVAs. The MANOVA also limits the number of type I errors.

Say you wanted to know if going to high-school or college affected how men and women did in their careers. Your independent variables are gender of individual and the amount of education achieved. You measure how men and women did in life in multiple ways: income, number of promotions gained, and a test of overall job happiness of each individual (these are your dependent variables). This is an example of a study that could be analyzed using a MANOVA.

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