Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.BackgroundThe British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey series began in 1983. The series is designed to produce annual measures of attitudinal movements to complement large-scale government surveys that deal largely with facts and behaviour patterns, and the data on party political attitudes produced by opinion polls. One of the BSA's 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. Funding for BSA comes from a number of sources (including government departments, the Economic and Social Research Council and other research foundations), but the final responsibility for the coverage and wording of the annual questionnaires rests with NatCen Social Research (formerly Social and Community Planning Research). The BSA has been conducted every year since 1983, except in 1988 and 1992 when core funding was devoted to the British Election Study (BES).Further information about the series and links to publications may be found on the NatCen Social Research British Social Attitudes webpage.

Main Topics:Each year, the BSA 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 are asked regularly, others less often. Cross-indexes of those questions asked more than once appear in the reports.

In the 1994 survey, as well as the standard demographic and classificatory items, the following topics were covered: government spending and the National Health Service; labour market participation, the workplace, childcare arrangements and preferences, gender segregation at work, work orientations; civil libertarian issues; fear of crime; race and immigration; courts, sentencing and prisons; education; Northern Ireland; charitable giving; local government; political trust; countryside, transport and the environment; European Community and international relations; economic issues and policies (including income and taxation); gender issues, women at home and at work; welfare issues, single parents and poverty. Standard Measures The questionnaires contain three scales developed by researchers involved in the <i>British Social Attitudes</i> survey series and the <i>British Election Study (BES)</i> series. These are: libertarian/authoritarian';left/right'; and `welfarist'. For details see: Heath, A. et al (1990) <i>The measurement of core beliefs and values</i> JUSST Working Paper No. 2, SCPR: London, and the Technical Report on the 1994 BSA survey.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

See documentation for each BSA year for full details.