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
The British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey series began in 1983, and has been conducted every year since, except in 1988 and 1992 when core funding was devoted to conducting post-election studies in the British Election Study (BES) series (held at the Archive under GN 33066). 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 NatCen Social Research (formerly known as the National Centre for Social Research and before that, 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 Lifestyle Survey and the Labour Force Survey (held under GN 33090 and GN 33246 respectively), 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) series which ran from 1989-1996 (held under GN 33235). NISA has been succeeded by the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (NILT) series (held under GN 33312), and the corresponding Young Life and Times Survey (YLT) series (held aunder GN 33313), which surveys young people aged 12-17 living in the households of adults interviewed for NILT. Both series began in 1998.
Additional studies
A combined BSA dataset is available (SN 2824) which includes data from 1983-1989 as well as an information retrieval program and a data extraction program. Also, in 1994, 1998 and 2003, the BSA survey was accompanied by the Young People's Social Attitudes Survey (YPSA) (held under GN 33338), 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. in addition, 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.
Further information about the series and links to publications may be found on the NatCen Social Research British Social Attitudes web page.
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Main Topics:
The BSA questionnaire normally comprises two parts, one administered and one for self-completion. Each year the interview questionnaire contains a number of 'core' questions, which are repeated in most years. In addition, a wide range of background and classificatory questions is 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.
In 1985, an international survey series initiative funded by the Nuffield Foundation, known as the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) (held under GN 33213) commenced. 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.
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For the 1998 survey, information was collected on a number of social issues including the following: political attitudes, housing, public spending, welfare, health care, labour market issues, genetic research, citizenship, local government, the countryside, and transport. Demographic data were also collected. The topic of the ISSP element of the BSA questionnaire was religion.
Standard Measures
The questionnaires contain three scales developed by researchers involved in the British Social Attitudes survey series and the British Election Study (BES) series. These are: 'libertarian/authoritarian'; 'left/right'; and 'welfarist'. For details see the Technical Report on the 1998 BSA survey.
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Links to publications may be found on the NatCen Social Research British Social Attitudes web page.
Social and Community Planning Research (1983-1988) British Social Attitudes technical report, London: SCPR, annual.
Social and Community Planning Research (1989-1995) British Social Attitudes and Northern Ireland Social Attitudes: technical report, London: SCPR.
McGrath, K. and Waterton, J. (1986) British Social Attitudes: 1983-1986 panel survey technical report, London: SCPR.
Brook, L. et al. (compilers) (1992) British Social Attitudes cumulative sourcebook: the first six surveys, Aldershot: Gower. ISBN 0566058294.
Social and Community Planning Research (1996) British Social Attitudes, Young People's Social Attitudes and Northern Ireland Social Attitudes: technical report, London: SCPR.
Social and Community Planning Research (1997) British Social Attitudes and Northern Ireland Social Attitudes: 1995 surveys: technical report, London: SCPR.
Lilley, S. et al. (1998) British Social Attitudes and Northern Ireland Social Attitudes: 1996 surveys: technical report, London: SCPR.
Bromley, C. et al. (1999) British Social Attitudes 1997 survey: technical report, London: National Centre for Social Research.
Thomson, K. et al. (2001) British Social Attitudes 1999 survey: technical report, London: National Centre for Social Research.
Jowell, R. and Airey, C. (eds.) (1984) British Social Attitudes: the 1984 report, Aldershot: Gower. ISBN 0566007371.
Jowell, R. and Witherspoon, S. (eds.) (1985) British Social Attitudes: the 1985 report, Aldershot: Gower. ISBN 0566007517.
Jowell, R. Witherspoon, S. and Brook, L. (eds.) (1986) British Social Attitudes: the 1986 report, Aldershot: Gower. ISBN 0566007525.
Jowell, R. Witherspoon, S. and Brook, L. (eds.) (1987) British Social Attitudes: the 1987 report, Aldershot: Gower. ISBN 0566007533.
Jowell, R., Witherspoon, S. and Brook, L. (eds.) (1988) British Social Attitudes: the 5th report, Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing. ISBN 0566057719.
Jowell, R., Witherspoon, S. and Brook, L. (eds.) (1990) British Social Attitudes: the 7th report, Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing. ISBN 0566058405.
Jowell, R., Brook, L. and Taylor, B. (eds.) (1991) British Social Attitudes: the 8th report, Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing. ISBN 1855212587.
Jowell, R. et al. (eds.) (1994) British Social Attitudes: the 11th report, Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing. ISBN 1855216124.
Jowell, R. et al. (eds.) (1995) British Social Attitudes: the 12th report, Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing.
Jowell, R. et al. (eds.) (1996) British Social Attitudes: the 13th report, Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing. ISBN 1855216078.
Jowell, R. et al. (eds.) (1997) British Social Attitudes: the 14th report: the end of conservative values, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Jowell, R. et al. (eds.) (1998) British - and European - Social Attitudes: the 15th report - how Britain differs, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Jowell, R. et al. (eds.) (1999) British Social Attitudes: the 16th report: who shares New Labour values?, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Jowell, R. et al. (eds.) (2000) British Social Attitudes: the 17th report - focusing on diversity, London: Sage.
Park, A. et al. (eds.) British Social Attitudes: the 18th report: public policy, social ties, London: Sage.
Brook, L. (1998) 'What drives support for higher public spending' in P.F. Taylor-Gooby (ed) Choice and Public Policy, London: Macmillan.
Bryson, C. and Jarvis, L. (2000) Trends in attitudes to health care 1983-1998: report based on results from the British Social Attitudes surveys, London: National Centre for Social Research. ISBN 0904607550.
Park, A. et al. (eds.) (2004) British Social Attitudes: the 21st report, London: Sage.
Park, A. et al. (eds.) (2005) British Social Attitudes: the 23rd report, London: Sage.
Park, A. et al. (eds.) (2007) British Social Attitudes: the 24th report, London: Sage.
Park, A. et al. (eds.) (2009) British Social Attitudes: the 25th report, London: Sage.
Park, A. et al. (eds.) (2010) British Social Attitudes: the 26th report, London: Sage.
Park, A. et al. (eds.) (2010) British Social Attitudes: the 27th report, London: Sage.
Park, A., Clery, E , Curtice, J., Phillips, M and Utting, D. (eds.) (2011) British Social Attitudes: the 28th report, London: Sage. Retrieved February 16th, 2011 from http://www.natcen.ac.uk/study/british-social-attitudes-28th-report
Park, A., Clery, E., Curtice, J., Phillips, M. and Utting, D. (eds.) (2012) British Social Attitudes: the 29th Report, London: NatCen Social Research. Retrieved March 11th, 2013 from http://www.natcen.ac.uk/bsa29
