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Title:
British Social Attitudes Survey, 2004

Series: (British Social Attitudes Surveys)

Subject Categories:
British and Northern Ireland Social Attitudes Surveys - Major studies
Social indicators and quality of life - Society and culture
Social attitudes and behaviour - Society and Culture

Depositor(s):
National Centre for Social Research

Principal Investigator(s):
National Centre for Social Research

Sponsor(s):
Gatsby Charitable Foundation
Hera Trust
Housing Corporation
Department of Health
Department for Work and Pensions
Department for Education and Skills
Department of Trade and Industry
Department for Transport

Grant Number:
ESRC: RES-501-25-5001, RES-000-23-0593

Project Number: P2373


Other Acknowledgements:
Social Statistics Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde for writing the SPSS setup file.

Abstract:
The British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey series began in 1983, and has been conducted every year since, except in 1988 and 1992 when the core-funding from the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts was devoted to conducting post-election studies of political attitudes and voting behaviour in the British Election Study (BES) series. However, for reasons of continuity, in 1997 a scaled-down BSA was also fielded in addition to the BES. Core-funding for BSA is supplemented by financial support from a number of sources (including government departments, the ESRC and other research foundations), but final responsibility for the coverage and wording of the annual questionnaires rests with the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen - formerly Social and Community Planning Research).

The series is designed to produce annual measures of attitudinal movements which will complement large-scale government surveys such as the General Household Survey and the Labour Force Survey, which deal largely with facts and behaviour patterns, as well as the data on party political attitudes produced by the polls. One of its main purposes is to allow the monitoring of patterns of continuity and change, and the examination of the relative rates at which attitudes, in respect of a range of social issues, change over time. Some questions are asked regularly, others less often. Many were also included in the Northern Ireland Social Attitudes Survey (NISA) thus allowing direct comparison of the attitudes, values and beliefs held by UK citizens on either side of the Irish Sea. This analogous survey of Northern Ireland was conducted annually from 1989 to 1996, when it was discontinued. NISA has been succeeded by the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (NILT) series, and the corresponding Young Life and Times Survey (YLT) series (held at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) under GN 33313), which surveys young people aged 12-17 living in the households of adults interviewed for NILT. Both the NILT and YLT series began in 1998.

A combined BSA dataset is available (SN 2824) which includes data from 1983 to 1989 (but not Northern Ireland data), as well as an information retrieval program and a data extraction program.

In 1994, 1998 and 2003, the BSA survey was accompanied by the Young People's Social Attitudes Survey (YPSA), which was designed to explore the attitudes and values of children and young people, and where possible to make comparisons with those held by adults. The sample for YPSA was drawn from young people aged 12-19 years living in the households of adults interviewed for the BSA survey.

A compilation of BSA data and documentation, including interactive descriptive statistics, is available via the Britsocat web site, maintained by the Centre for Comparative European Survey Data.
Main Topics:
The questionnaire normally has two parts, one administered and one left for self-completion and later return. Each year the interview questionnaire contains a number of 'core' questions. These cover major topic areas such as defence, the economy, labour market participation and the welfare state. The majority of these questions are repeated in most years, if not every year. In addition, a wide range of background and classificatory questions is always included. The remainder of the questionnaire is devoted to a series of questions (modules) on a range of social, economic, political and moral issues - some asked regularly, others less often. Cross-indexes of those questions asked more than once appear in the reports.
Between 1984 and 1986 the ESRC funded the introduction of a panel element into the series, enabling about half (about 700) of the first year's respondents to be re-interviewed with a slightly adapted questionnaire.

Since 1985, an international initiative funded by the Nuffield Foundation, known as the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) has been running. The BSA series contributes data each year for the ISSP, and so some questionnaire modules now allow cross-national comparisons. The ISSP modules are always contained in the self-completion part of the questionnaire.
In 2004, three versions of the questionnaire were used for the fieldwork. Respondents are randomly assigned to one of the versions. Modules may have been included on one, two or three versions of the questionnaire (thus giving different sample sizes).

The 2004 questionnaire covered attitudes to social housing, redistribution, views of the welfare state, expectations of and satisfaction with the National Health Service, ways of improving primary and secondary education, management-employee relations and life-cycle events. Version A of the self-completion questionnaire included a module of questions about citizenship, which formed the ISSP component of the 2004 BSA.

Standard Measures
The questionnaires contain three scales developed by researchers involved in the BSA and British Election Study (BES) series. These are: 'libertarian/authoritarian'; 'left/right'; and 'welfarist'.

Coverage:
Dates of Fieldwork: June 2004-September 2004
Country: Great Britain
Spatial Units: Government Office Regions (GORs);Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies (England);Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies (Wales);Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies (Scotland); Local Authority Districts; Standard Regions
Observation Units: Individuals
Kind of Data: Numeric data; Alpha/numeric data; Individual (micro) level

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:National
Population:Adults (18 and over) living in private households in Great Britain (excluding the 'crofting counties' north of the Caledonian Canal).

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Repeated cross-sectional study
The BSA survey is conducted annually.
Sampling Procedures: Multi-stage stratified random sample
Sampling is conducted in four stages; from 1993 the sample has been drawn from the Postcode Address File, whereas in previous years it was drawn from the Electoral Register.
Number of Units: 5,660 (target), 3,199 (obtained).
Method of Data Collection: Face-to-face interview; Self-completion; from 1994 the face-to-face interviewing has been conducted by Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI).
Weighting: Weighting variable used: WTFACTOR. See documentation for details.

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:
Access Conditions: The depositor has specified that registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. See terms and conditions for further information.
Availability: ESDS Government, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: govsurveys@esds.ac.uk

Date of Release:
First Edition: 20 February 2006

Copyright:
Copyright National Centre for Social Research

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