Surveys and Social Research Young Persons’ Attitudes Survey 2008

Why surveys? ‘Information capitalism’  Vast amounts of information collected on all of us for range of purposes  Daily ‘polls’ on issues ranging from the serious to the ridiculous  When can data be trusted?

Who wore it best? From Heat Magazine website Kruger 38% Dion62%

Recent examples Latest Mori Opinion Poll  2,063 adults Vote intention: 34% Cons, 42% Labour, 15% Lib Dem Poll for Newsnight  1,012 adults Agree 51% Disagree 46% Telephone poll by The Sun Newspaper  95,000 responses Bring back death penalty – 99% agree

Which is most reliable? Issues  Sample size  Representativeness  Question wording

Size matters…. …..but not as much as you might think Sample sizes and associated errors 500 => +/-4.4% 1,000 => +/-3.1% 5,000 => +/-1.4% 10,000 => +/-1% Does not matter how large the population is!

Representative? How was the survey collected?  Random sample?  ‘Opt-in’, self-selection?  In the street?  Face-to-face?  Telephone?  Mail back?  Online?

Non-response Is the survey biased?  Who didn’t respond? How to deal with non-response  Only possible if there is a sampling frame  Weight data  Impute answers

Our Survey Young Person’s Attitude Survey  NOT random  NOT representative  NOT reliable Useful  How did you go about answering?  Did you have to think or were answers spontaneous?  Ambiguous questions?

Results All questions taken from existing surveys  Mori Opinion Poll (~2,000)  British Social Attitudes (~1,000)  British Household Panel Study (~8,000) Comparison with adult responses Remember our results not necessarily representative of young people as a whole!

Politics and Voting I

Politics and Voting II

Most important issue in Britain

Issues in Society: Immigration

Issues in society: Family life

Education I

Education II

Time Use I

Leisure Activities

About you Young Persons’ Attitude Survey  Male 39%  Female 61%  Yorkshire and Humberside 19%  South West 14%  Other 67%

Surveys and Social Research Surveys used by wide range of groups in society  Government (Census, Labour Force Survey)  Newspapers (Opinion polls)  Media (Voting shows)  Market research (Who buys what, where and when)  Social research

Social Research Key features/differences between social research and other forms  Not for commercial gain  Theoretically guided  Understand attitudes/behaviours  Inform policy and wider debates  Strict codes of practice and ethics

Social Research Examples from UPTAP programme  ‘ Being a Muslim in Europe’  ‘Social and Political Trust’  ‘Cohabitation: Attitudes, intentions and behaviour’  ‘Geographies of Happiness and Well-being’  ‘Employment and Cardiovascular Risk’ More details