Understanding Society

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UnderstandingSociety
THE UK HOUSEHOLD LONGITUDINAL STUDY
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Funding and Sustainability

• Study currently funded until 2015, waves 1-5
• ESRC contribution of 27 million
• 19.4 million from Large Facilities Capital Fund
• 2.51 million from co-funders, including

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Impact

• Understanding Society will explain how UK
  families respond to regional, national and
  international change, including
• Environment we will track whether people are
  changing their environmental behaviour in areas
  like recycling
• Recession and Mobility are large numbers of
  people moving to new industries?
• Caring for the elderly are people leaving
  employment to care?
• Are people struggling to get stable employment
  following the deepest recession in sixty years?
• What are the financial behaviours of UK
  households?

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Understanding SocietyThe basics
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Understanding Society The beginning

• Built on the strong foundation of the British
  Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the Northern
  Ireland Household Panel Study
• 18 years (BHPS) / 8 years (NIHPS) of data
• Most used data by academics
• More than 2000 publications
• Funded by the Economic and Social Research
  Council (ESRC) and drawing on co-funding from
  Government Departments
• Management of the study awarded to ISER
• Fieldwork contract awarded to
• National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) for
  GB
• Central Survey Unit (CSU) for Northern Ireland

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Understanding Society The basics

• UKHLS UK Household Longitudinal Study
• UK covers England, Wales, Scotland and Northern
  Ireland
• Household interview all adults in the
  household, and children aged 10-15 complete a
  questionnaire
• Longitudinal return each year to interview the
  same people, following them if they move and
  interviewing their household

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Rationales for longitudinal research

• Net versus gross change gross change visible
  only from longitudinal data
• e.g. decomposition of change in unemployment rate
  over time into contributions from inflows and
  outflows
• Some phenomena are inherently longitudinal (e.g.
  poverty persistence unstable employment)
• Provides spell-based perspectives (and can
  observe how circumstances change with time spent
  in state)
• Repeated observations on individuals allow for
  possibility of controlling for unobserved
  differences between individuals (fixed and random
  effect models)
• The ability to make causal inference is enhanced
  by temporal ordering

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Features of Understanding Society

• Large sample size 40,000 households, around
  100,000 individuals
• Ethnicity strand ethnic minority boost allows
  robust analyses of different ethnic groups
• Bio-social collection of additional bio-social
  data collected by interviewers and nurse height,
  weight, cognitive function, blood
• Data linkage information collected during the
  survey will be linked, with the consent of the
  respondent, to administrative and geographical
  data
• Innovative an panel of 1,500 households is used
  to test new ways of collecting data

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Key features Large sample size

• 40,000 households gives an opportunity to explore
  issues where other longitudinal surveys are too
  small.
• Permits analysis of small subgroups (teenage
  parents, disabled people etc)
• Analysis at regional and sub-regional levels
  effects of geographic variation in policy
• High-resolution analysis of events in time
  single-year age cohorts
• Household focus data on all members of
  household and interactions within household
  (consumption, income within-household sharing
  is crucial)
• Better and more continuous information on family
  and household environment within which early
  development takes place
• Observe multiple generations and siblings allow
  examination of long-term transmission processes
  and isolate effects of commonly-shared family
  characteristics
• Explore linkages outside the household (external
  transfers, extended family contact)

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Key features Ethnicity strand

• The ethnicity strand refers to the whole
  approach towards ethnicity in the study
• Focus on issues of diversity and commonality
• Self-identification of ethnic group
• Country of birth
• Background parents and grandparents ethnicity
  and countries of birth
• Identity importance to sense of self
• Behaviour and beliefs
• Migration history
• Common questionnaire content across the sample
  for many questions, including some ethnicity
  related questions
• Additional questionnaire content within the
  ethnic minority boost
• General Population comparison sample

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Key features Biomedical research

• Biosocial study
• Opportunity to assess exposure and antecedent
  factors of health status, understanding disease
  mechanisms (e.g. gene-environment interaction,
  gene-to-function links), household and
  socioeconomic effects and analysis of outcomes
  using direct assessments or data linkage.
• Opens up prospects for advances at the interface
  between social science and biomedical research.
• Cognitive function Wave 3
• Nurse visits (GB only)
• Bio-marker collection started after Wave 2
  (Understanding Society) and Wave 3 (BHPS), with a
  follow-up nurse visit to around 6,000 households
  in England, Scotland and Wales
• Collect height, weight, waist circumference,
  body-fat percentage, lung function, blood
  pressure, grip strength and blood
• Interviewer collection of biomarkers (planned)
• Pilot to test iBio in April 2011
• Interviewers collect height, weight, waist
  circumference, body-fat percentage, blood
  pressure, grip strength and dried blood spots or
  saliva

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Cognitive Ability/Functioning Full Sample at W3
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Key Features linkage to administrative records

• At Wave 1 asked respondents for permission to
  link to
• Health records
• Education records
• At a future wave, also ask for linkage to
  benefits and tax records
• Parents were asked for permission on behalf of
  children lt 16
• Will provide validation data e.g. for
  non-employment income receipts
• Provide additional data not possible to collect
  in context of a survey interview
• Link survey data to a range of geo-coded data

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Key Features Innovative

• Innovation
• Administrative data linkage
• Facility for geo-coded links
• Innovation panel
• Data collection moving to multiple modes
• Looking to develop qualitative research combined
  with quantitative data collection
• Test bed for development of new scientific theory
  and give momentum to the development of new
  methodological and analytical tools and
  techniques
• Support development in experimental research and
  understanding the behaviour underlying survey
  non-response, measurement error and other
  barriers to high-quality quantitative research

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Potential for Understanding Society

• Long-term, annual interview
• As the panel matures over the next 20 years (we
  hope!) longer-term processes can be observed
• Regular interviews ensure the capture of short
  and longer-term change in society
• Frequency of data collection means that the
  timing and duration of events can be observed
  close to the time at which they occur

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Potential for Understanding Society

• Multi-purpose/multi-topic
• Ethnic minority strand
• Bio-social agenda
• A very wide range of research agendas, bringing
  together information on many life-course domains
• Interdisciplinary
• aims both to meet needs of traditional panel use
  disciplines (economics, social policy and
  sociology)
• support more interdisciplinary work within the
  social sciences (e.g. geography and economics)
• within the biomedical sciences (e.g. psychology
  and genetics)
• between the social and biomedical sciences.

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Design
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Understanding Society design

• 12 month intervals between interviews as per the
  old BHPS/NIHPS
• Continuous fieldwork over a 24 month period for
  each wave in GB
• January 2009 Wave 1 Year 1 starts
• January 2010 Wave 1 Year 2 starts Wave 2 Year
  1 starts
• January 2011 Wave 2 Year 2 starts Wave 3 Year
  1 starts
• The BHPS/NIHPS sample is integrated into Year 1
  at Wave 2
• Continuous fieldwork over a 12 month period for
  each wave in Northern Ireland
• Respondents maintain the same initial monthly
  allocation throughout the life of the survey
• Face-to-face interview at Waves 1-4
• Intention is for mixed mode data collection at
  Wave 5
• The IP is in field one year before the
  corresponding main stage wave.
• IP2 was mixed mode (telephone/face-to-face)
• IP5 is planned to be mixed mode
  (telephone/web/face-to-face)

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Sample Understanding Society

• Great Britain sample
• Stratified, clustered sample of entire GB
  residential population (incl. Highlands and
  Islands).
• Addresses drawn from PAF
• Primary sampling units are postal sectors in GB
• 2640 PSUs
• 110 sample points issued each month
• 18 addresses issued to each PSU (2640 X 18
  47,520 issued addresses)
• Northern Ireland sample
• Unclustered sample of residential population
• 2,400 addresses drawn systematically from Land
  and Property Services Agency list of domestic
  properties
• Addresses allocated to 11 monthly samples
  February and March slightly larger number to
  maintain a representative sample at the quarterly
  level

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Sample BHPS/NIHPS

• Great Britain 1991 sample
• Stratified, clustered sample of entire GB
  residential population (south of the Caledonian
  Canal).
• 8,167 addresses drawn from Postcode Address file
• Primary sampling units are postal sectors in GB
• 250 PSUs
• Approx. 33 addresses issued to each PSU
• Boost samples
• 1999 Scotland/Wales
• similar design to 1991, except includes north of
  Caledonian Canal
• 75 PSUs in each country 30-33 addresses in each
  PSU
• 2001 Northern Ireland
• Unclustered sample of residential population
• 2,885 addresses drawn systematically from
  Valuation and Land Agency list of domestic
  properties 1,997 productive households

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Sample design ethnic minority boost

• In GB only (no NI cases)
• 43,000 addresses selected for screening
• Medium to high density ethnic minority areas
  included in sample est. coverage 80 90 of
  EM population
• Designed to produce 1,000 individuals interviewed
  in each of five main ethnic groups
• Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Caribbean, Black
  African plus all mixed backgrounds
• Includes other ethnic minorities such as Chinese,
  other Asian, Middle Eastern

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Sample design GP comparison sample and
Innovation Panel

• GP comparison sample (plus all ethnic minority
  respondents in the GP sample in low density areas
  who had no chance of selection in the boost
  sample)
• Receive additional 5 minutes of questions as for
  the boost sample
• One randomly sampled address in 40 of PSUs
• Of 2640 PSUs, 1,056 contain 1 comparison sample
  address
• To achieve 500 interviewed households
• All persons at those addresses treated the same
  i.e. regardless of ethnic group
• Innovation Panel
• Equal probability design as per the new GP sample
  but GB only (south Caledonian Canal)
• 120 PSUs/ 23 addresses per PSU
• Issued sample of 2760 addresses to achieve 1500
  interviewed households (60 response rate of
  eligible addresses)

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Eligible residents

• Definition of household
• Shared living accommodation/one meal per day
• Main residence
• Includes
• Long term holiday / boarding school / hospital
  (temp. absent)
• Still in halls of residence / institution (temp.
  absent)
• In prison returning to household
• Long-term au pairs
• 6 months continuous residence
• Adults working away if address is main
  household
• 6 month rule except for special groups

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Types of sample member

• OSM (Original Sample Member)
• In Wave 1 sample
• New babies of female OSM
• TSM (Temporary Sample Member)
• New household members
• PSM (Permanent Sample Member)
• Male TSM who has child with female OSM
• New Entrant

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Overview of interviewer activities

• Visit households
• Enumerate households (including new household
  members)
• Interview adults (aged 16), including new
  household entrants
• Administer adult and child self-completions
• Follow those who move from original households
  (including children aged 0-15)
• Trace movers to new address
• Interview mover and other residents at the new
  address

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Where are we now?
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Understanding Society The story so far

• Wide consultation ongoing
• Academics, policy-makers, third sector,
  grassroots organisations
• Innovation Panel
• Wave 1 January 2008
• Wave 2 March 2009
• Wave 3 April 2010
• Cognitive Testing
• April/May 2008
• June 2009
• April/May 2010

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Understanding Society The story so far

• Translation Pilot June 2008
• Dress Rehearsal
• Wave 1 August/September 2008
• Wave 2 September-December 2009
• Wave 3 September-December 2010
• Wave 1 started January 8th, 2009 (until
  December 2010)
• Wave 2 started January 8th, 2010 (until
  December 2011)
• Wave 3 started January 8th, 2011 (until
  December 2012)
• Data available for Wave 1 Year 1 from the UK Data
  Archive

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Understanding Society Coming up

• Innovation Panel Wave 4 March-May 2011
• Wave 4 consultation and development
• Wave 4 cognitive interviewing (March-April 2011)
• IP5 experiment competition
• iBio pilot April-June 2011
• Wave 4 Dress Rehearsal September-December 2011
• Development of mixed mode strategy and design
• Deposit of full Wave 1 data
• Deposit of Wave 2 Year 1 data

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Understanding Society study timetable

• January new Wave go into the field
• January-March IP developed
• January-March Next wave questionnaire drafted
• March-May IP in field
• March-June Next wave questionnaire cognitive
  testing and finalised
• March-June Next wave IP competition
• July-September Next wave script tested
• July-September Next IP developed
• September-December Next wave dress rehearsal
  run-in
• September-December Next IP specified, scripted
• September-December Next wave question development

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Sample sizes and response rates
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Household response
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Wave 1 (Year 1) sample numbers households
Eligible households only.
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Wave 2 (Year 1) sample numbers households (so
far)
November/December samples still in the field
Eligible households only.
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Individuals within co-operating households
Wave 2 is based on January-May data
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Wave 1 (Year 1) sample numbers individuals
Eligible individuals only.
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Wave 2 (Year 1) sample numbers individuals
(January-May data)
Eligible individuals only.
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Questionnaire content
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Structure of the interview
Adults (16)
CAPI 32.5 mins
Paper SC/CASI 10-15 mins
Paper SC 10-15 mins
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Understanding Society The individual
questionnaire

• For all aged 16 in the household, covers
• Initial conditions e.g., place of birth,
  citizenship, qualifications, family background
• Ethnicity and national identity, language,
  religion, harassment
• History of marriage and cohabitation, fertility
• Health and disability, caring
• Employment and non-employment, discrimination
• Childcare, parents and children, family networks
• Unearned income and state benefits
• Household finances
• Political affiliation and values, environmental
  behaviour

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Youth questionnaire

• For 10 15 year olds (vs 11 15 on BHPS/NIHPS)
• Some BHPS/NIHPS content carried forward
• Understanding Society content also includes
• Use social websites
• Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire
• Relationship with parents/family members
• Bullying at school and by/to siblings
• More LSYPE comparable questions on education,
  truancy, misbehaviour etc
• Religion and ethnic group
• Illicit drugs/alcohol use and perceived risk of
  harm (at w2)
• Cultural and sports participation (at w2)
• Homework (at w2)
• Money and work (w3)
• Taking care of others (w3)

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Rotating modules and questions

• Length constraints acute
• Move away from BHPS/NIHPS structure where most
  people are eligible to be asked all questions and
  most questions repeated each wave. More use of
• questions asked regularly, but not every wave
• triggered questions asked only after key events
• questions asked only at particular ages
• Decided that where a BHPS/NIHPS question had no
  better replacement it would be carried forward
  for comparability
• But many questions cut or replaced or moved to a
  rotating frequency

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Understanding Society new areas of interest vs
BHPS/NIHPS

• Family and social networks outside the household
• Attitudes and behaviours related to environmental
  issues
• More on Illicit and risky behaviour especially
  for young people
• Psychological attributes
• Cognitive ability/functioning measures
• More on health outcomes and health related
  behaviour
• Quality of sleep
• Well-being
• Quality of marital relationships
• Risk and trust
• Collection of data about younger children lt 10
  from parent
• More data on transition into young adulthood
• Discrimination and harassment
• Ethnic and national identity

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Future content plans
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Aging

• Strategy is to ask a range of questions across
  the life-course
• General content repeated over time is a way to
  study aging
• Large sample means about 1,000 respondents at
  each age lt 70, fewer older people
• Specific age triggered content
• Children under age 10 Circumstances of birth if
  newborn, breastfeeding, physical and
  psycho-social development at key ages, and
  parenting of children, childcare arrangements, to
  name a few.
• Youth 10-15 year old qre Adult content that
  mirrors youth qre for 16-24 year olds including
  expectations employment, family, education, other
  experiences.
• Mid-Life Retirement planning and expectations
  (w2) for those not currently retired at age 40,
  45, 50, 55, 60, 65

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Poverty

• Content that addresses issues of poverty mirrors
  BHPS/NIHPS content, but also
• Household expenditure, consumption (annual)
• Household deprivation, child deprivation
  (rotating)
• Behind in payments (annual)
• Wealth (rotating)
• Individual income from benefits and other sources
  (annual)
• Earnings (annual)
• Pensions Savings (rotating)
• Other covariates

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Drug Use

• Drug Use
• Youth questionnaire addresses this specifically
• Carrying forward alcohol, tobacco and illegal
  drug use questions into Young Adult content (w3
  annual)
• Alcohol consumption amongst adults (w2 rotating)
• Prescription drug use in Nurse visit (w2 / w3)
• Local neighbourhood
• BHPS/NIHPS questions on neighbourhood conditions
• Fear of crime in neighbourhood

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For more information

• Questionnaires for waves 1 - 3 (including IP) are
  in the intranet at
• http//data.understandingsociety.org.uk/survey-mat
  erials
• Understanding Society working papers at
• http//research.understandingsociety.org.uk/publi
  cations
• Data available from the ESRC UK Data Archive
• http//www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.as
  p?sn6614