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EFFNATIS Research
The project required us to collect data on three groups of young adults aged
between 16 and 25. At least 100 respondents were to be from two differing
ethnic minority groups : this was based upon a prior theoretical expectation
that there are significant differences between and amongst ethnic minority
groups. There was also to be a control group from the autochthonous
population.
The sampling was based upon a random set of addresses drawn from the
electoral register. Interviewers approached these addresses and attempted to
discover if there were people living there aged between 16 and 25. If there
were, interviews were, sought with all such people within the age band.
Normally, just one respondent is interviewed in these circumstances but, as
we know from demographic sources that South Asian households are much
larger on average than autochthonous ones, to have followed such a route
would have biased our sample.
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Interviewing proceeded until we had secured a random sample with the
desired characteristics. The overall sample contained 844 respondents with
the following ethnic characteristics:
TOTAL 2227
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The British Household Panel Survey [BHPS]
The British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) is carried out by the ESRC UK
Longitudinal Studies Centre with the Institute for Social and Economic
Research at the University of Essex. The main objective of the survey is to
further understanding of social and economic change at the individual and
household level in Britain and to identify, model and forecast such changes,
their causes and consequences in relation to a range of socio-economic
variables. The BHPS is designed as a research resource for a wide range of
social science disciplines and to support interdisciplinary research in many
areas.
The BHPS was designed as an annual survey of each adult (16+) member of
a nationally representative sample of more than 5,000 households, making a
total of approximately 10,000 individual interviews. The same individuals are
re-interviewed in successive waves and, if they split-off from original
households, all adult members of their new households are also interviewed.
Children are interviewed once they reach the age of 16; there is also a special
survey of 11-15 year old household members from Wave Four onwards. The
sample is designed to be broadly representative of the population of Britain.
Additional sub-samples were added to the BHPS in 1997 and 1999.
Research priorities and research design for the BHPS were established after
extensive consultation within the British academic and policy research
community. Major topics in the first three waves of the panel survey were
household organisation, the labour market, income and wealth, housing,
health and socio-economic values. The panel survey thus permits research
into a wide range of topics such as the relationship between health changes
and unemployment, the effects of life events on changing socio-economic
values, life cycle variations in income, the returns in the labour market to
training and education, the causes and consequences of residential mobility,
and so on.
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• because sample members are followed as they leave their
original household, panel data will provide unique information on
the processes of household formation and dissolution.
The initial sample for Wave One of the BHPS was similar to any cross-
sectional household study, for example OPCS's General Household Survey.
The sample consisted of 8167 issued addresses drawn from the Postcode
Address File. Interviews were attempted at all private households found at
these addresses (subject to selection where multiple households were found).
All individuals enumerated in respondent households became part of the
longitudinal sample. All these sample members are known as Original Sample
Members (OSMs).
The sample for the subsequent waves consists of all adults in all households
containing at least one member who was resident in a household interviewed
at Wave One, regardless of whether that individual had been interviewed in
Wave One. Thus, with a few exceptions, an attempt was made to interview all
those individuals in responding households who had refused to participate at
Wave One, or for any reason had been unable to take part. In addition, a
number of households where no contact had been made in Wave One were
approached for interview in Wave Two after confirmation that no household
moves between waves had taken place.
The following rules applied in subsequent waves differed from the sampling
rules in Wave One in only one respect. In both sets of rules, eligibility
depended on domestic residence in England, Wales, or Scotland south of the
Caledonian Canal. In waves after Wave One, however, OSMs were followed
into institutions (unless in prison or in circumstances where the respondent
was not available for interview e.g. too frail, mentally impaired etc.) or into
Scotland north of the Caledonian Canal.
New eligibility for sample inclusion could occur between waves in the
following ways:
Children born to OSMs after the start of the study automatically count as
OSMs. New Entrants to the sample (categories two and three) become
eligible for interview on the standard OPCS household definition, (i.e. as long
as they were living with an OSM and `either share living accommodation OR
share one meal a day and have the address as their only or main residence').
The main requirement for marginal cases of household membership was six
months continuous residence during the year. This excluded students who
might have been at a parental home during vacation (students were treated
as members of their term-time household). The household non-contacts from
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Wave One referred to above count technically as OSMs but for all practical
purposes (in particular the need to obtain `initial conditions' data) were treated
as new entrants. The sample for each Wave thus consists of all OSMs plus
their natural descendants plus any other adult members of their households,
known as Temporary Sample Members (TSMs).
Where OSMs are not found at the expected address, interviewers attempt to
trace them using a variety of methods. These are described in the Section on
Sampling and Survey Methods. Interviewees who do not quality as OSMs are
only re-interviewed in subsequent years if they are still co-resident in
households with OSMs. However, a subset of TSMs become permanent
sample members and arefollowed even if they no longer reside with an OSM.
The criterion for this status is that the TSM is the parent, with an OSM, of a
new OSM birth.
♦ Additional sub-samples
From Wave Seven the BHPS began providing data for the United Kingdom
European Community Household Panel (ECHP). As part of this, it
incorporated a sub-sample of the original UKECHP, including all households
still responding in Northern Ireland, and a 'low-income' sample of the Great
Britain panel. The low-income sample was selected on the basis of
characteristics associated with low income in the ECHP. At Wave Seven
ECHP households in which all adult members responded at wave seven and
which fell into the following categories were issued:
From the point of view of the BHPS this constitutes a new sample whose first
wave is wave seven. However, their sample membership status depends in
part on their membership status within the ECHP. Thus, members of the
original 1994 ECHP sample are defined for our purposes as OSMs, while
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joiners to ECHP households after the first wave of ECHP, including joiners at
Wave Seven and Wave Eight of BHPS are defined as TSMs or PSMs
according to standard BHPS rules. There are also a small number of ECHP
original sample members who rejoin selected households after Wave Seven.
These are also classified as OSMs.
♦ Survey Instruments
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spouse or partners, in o rder to unambiguously establish all
relationships (for instance, secondary or `hidden' couples).
neighbourhood
individual demographics
residential mobility
health and caring
current employment and earnings
employment changes over the past year
lifetime childbirth, marital and relationship history (Wave Two only)
employment status history (Wave Two only)
values and opinions
household finances and organization
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At Wave Nine only the household questionnaire and the individual
questionnaire were converted to CAPI.
References
Rose, D. (ed) (2000) Researching Social and Economic Change: The Uses of
Household Panel Studies.
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