Understanding Society (UKHLS)

Summary

The survey instrument is constructed with modules. For a fuller listing of modules and questionnaire content see the User Manual or the online documentation system. The household questionnaire includes a household composition listing of all household members with information about gender, date of birth, marital and employment status, and relationship to the household respondent. The household questionnaire also includes questions about housing, mortgage or rent payments, material deprivation, and consumer durables and cars. The individual interview is asked of every person in the household aged 16 or over. It includes questions about demographics, baseline information, family background, ethnicity and language use; migration, partnership and fertility histories; health, disability and caring; current employment and earnings; employment status (for persons interviewed January-June); parenting and childcare arrangements; family networks; benefit payments; political party identification; household finances; environmental behaviours; consents to administrative data linkage. The adult self-completed questionnaire is a pencil-and-paper instrument. The self-completion component asks about subjective questions, particularly those which are potentially sensitive or require more privacy. It includes feelings of depression (General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12)) and wellbeing, sleep behaviour, environmental attitudes and beliefs, neighbourhood participation and belonging, life satisfaction, activities with partner and relationship quality. A proxy module, a much shortened version of the individual questionnaire, collects demographic, health, and employment information, as well as a summary income measure. The youth self-completion questionnaire is a pencil-and-paper instrument for children aged 10-15. The content includes computer and technology use, family support, sibling relationships, feelings about areas of life, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), health behaviours, smoking and drinking, and aspirations. Major strengths of the Survey include the large sample size for a panel survey; administered by an organisation that has some decades experience of running panel studies; long-term funding permitting strategic decisions to be undertaken; very broad topic coverage permitting a wide range of analyses; an innovation panel permitting novel methods to be tested. The research team includes a range of relevant disciplines. The main weaknesses relate to the general issue of maintaining response in such surveys and the fact that it is a general population rather than a survey concentrating specifically on older people. The design of Understanding Society has a number of innovative and unique features: • Large sample size (40,000 households) • Household focus • Full age range (10 and above) • Multi-purpose multi-topic questions • Innovation Panel for methodological research and experiments • Incorporation of British Household Panel Survey • Data linkage • Ethnicity Strand • Health data • Comparability with other surveys

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Survey same

Data gathering method
Face-to-face
Self administered questionnaire
Other: Face-to-face interview; Self-completion; Health assessment

Access to data

Conditions of access
Data are available from the UK Data Service (previously the Economic and Social Data Service, ESDS): http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/ The website contains detailed information on conditions of access, and it is also possible to contact the UK Data Service by phone: +44 (0)1206 872143, or by email: help@ukdataservice.ac.uk

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Anonymised microdata

Formats available
Survey data from the UK Data Service are usually available to download in SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited (suitable for use in MS Excel) formats.

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
The study is an annual survey of each adult member of a nationally representative sample. The same individuals are re-interviewed in each wave. If individuals leave their household, all adult members of their new household are interviewed. Each wave is collected over 24 months, such that the first wave of data was collected between January 2009 and January 2011, and the second wave between January 2010 and January 2012. Data collection takes place using computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). One person completes the household questionnaire. Each person aged 16 or older answers the individual adult interview and self-completion questionnaire. Young people aged 10 to 15 years are asked to respond to a paper self-completion questionnaire. The study has four sample components: the General Population component, the Innovation Panel, a boost sample of ethnic minority group members, and participants in the former British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). The BHPS and Innovation Panel data are held by the UK Data Service as separate catalogues. Additionally, former participants of the BHPS joined Understanding Society from Wave 2. BHPS sample members have an identifier within the Understanding Society datasets from Wave 2 onwards, allowing the matching of BHPS data to Understanding Society. Wave 1: 30,169 households (26,089 from general population sample, 4,080 from ethnic minority boost sample); 50,994 adults (43,674 from general population sample, 7,320 from ethnic minority boost sample); 4,899 young people aged 10-15 years (3,995 from general population sample, 904 from ethnic minority boost sample). Wave 2: 30,508 households (21,025 from general population sample, 2,791 from ethnic minority boost sample, 6,692 from former BHPS sample); 54,597 adults (36,963 from general population sample, 5,598 from ethnic minority boost sample, 12,063 from former BHPS sample); 5,020 young people aged 10-15: (3,239 from general population sample, 664 from ethnic minority boost sample, 1,117 from former BHPS sample). `Note: Older people are represented in this data source (approximately) according to their proportion in the population. In 2011, over one third of the total UK population (and approximately 40 per cent of the adult population 16+) was aged 50 and over.`

First year of collection
2009-2011 Note: Data collection began in 1991 for the BHPS component

Stratification if applicable
The data includes a variety of demographic variables, including age and sex. The sample is stratified.

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
Countries (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) Government Office Regions (NUTS1) More detailed spatial data are available under Special License.

Age range
All ages

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
As a multi-topic household survey, the purpose of Understanding Society is to understand social and economic change in Britain at the household and individual levels. It is anticipated that over time the study will permit examination of short- and long-term effects of social and economic change, including policy interventions, on the general wellbeing of the UK population. The study has a strong emphasis on domains of family and social ties, work, financial resources, and health. The design of Understanding Society has a number of innovative and unique features: • Large sample size (40,000 households) • Household focus • Full age range (10 and above) • Multi-purpose multi-topic questions • Innovation Panel for methodological research and experiments • Incorporation of British Household Panel Survey • Data linkage • Ethnicity Strand • Health data • Comparability with other surveys Further information about the survey may be found in the documentation, and on the Understanding Society web site.

Linkage

Standardisation
There is an ongoing cross-governmental programme of work in the UK which aims to develop and improve standardised inputs and outputs for use in official statistics. This is known as harmonisation, and is led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). While this work primarily affects government-run surveys, the results have an impact on most national UK data sources. Furthermore, harmonisation has important benefits for all researchers using these surveys, and not just government statisticians. For more information, see: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/harmonisation/harmonisation-index-page/index.html Additionally, this survey uses a number of harmonised measures of health and deprivation: • Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 12 (SF-12) • General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) • Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale • Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) • Material deprivation • Child deprivation • Neighbourhood cohesion

Possibility of linkage among databases
Data are anonymised, but there is an ongoing linkage plan for the study, including linkage to administrative data sources. For more information see: https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/about/data-linkage

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
In addition to unit non-response, the data include item non-response and may be subject to other errors that are typical of surveys and censuses. There are also incomplete data for some individuals in some waves. For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Breaks
There are no major breaks for this data source.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
The consistency of this data source is very good. For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Governance

Contact information
Institute for Social and Economic Research
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
CO4 3SQ Essex United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0)1206 872957
Email: info(at)understandingsociety.ac.uk
Url: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/

Timeliness, transparency
Data are generally deposited about 12 months after the end of fieldwork