# ANCOVA: ordinal covariate on SPSS

I'm trying to run an ANCOVA on SPSS with 3 variables: Gender, score 1, score 2.

I want to control for the possibility that gender has an effect the scores, in order to isolate just the relationship between score 1 and score 2.

However, I cannot enter gender as a covariate on SPSS as, by definition, it assumes covariates must be scalars.

So, how can I run my ANCOVA and make sure that gender isn't affecting my 2 other variables?

• Calling a variable a "covariate" is treated as meaningful in SPSS in terms of how you can use the wizards to call for your analysis, but it doesn't actually have an underlying statistical meaning. Just code Gender as a column of 1s & 0s (using whichever you prefer for "female"), & run a multiple regression w/ your scores & your dummy code. – gung - Reinstate Monica Apr 8 '14 at 0:43
• @gung is right. And also note that a binary variable is of its own kind. It can serve as factor or as a covariate, giving the same results. – ttnphns Apr 8 '14 at 2:28