Dr. gershoff from columbia university conducted extensive research on parental uses of spanking. one correlation that emerged was a relationship between parental socioeconomic status and use of spanking. in other words, as socioeconomic status declines, rates of parental use of spanking rise. this finding represents a:

This finding represents "negative correlation".

A negative correlation implies that there is a backwards connection between two factors - when one variable decreases, alternate increments. The other way around is a negative connection as well, in which one variable increments and alternate declines. These correlations are considered in statistics as a method for deciding the connection between two variables.