Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The Youth Lifestyles Survey, 1998-1999 (YLS) was conducted between October 1998 and January 1999 for the Home Office by Social and Community Planning Research (SCPR - who changed their name to the National Centre for Social Research - Natcen - in May 1999). The survey design was shared between the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate and SCPR. The aims of the survey were primarily to investigate offending amongst young people and how this differs by lifestyle and demographic factors and to look at the way the pattern of offending changes with age. This study was the second sweep of the YLS - the first was conducted in 1992-1993 (held at the UKDA under SN 3814), and was reported by Graham and Bowling, 1995. The first YLS therefore gives a baseline measure of offending and allowed for a comparison between the 1992-1993 YLS and the 1998-1999 study to be made. It was planned that changing trends in offending between the two surveys would be examined, along with the extent of these changes. The original YLS suggested that, for men, desisting from offending did not happen until the age of 25. For this reason, the 1998-1999 YLS extended the age range examined to 30, so that offending among those respondents in their late twenties could also be investigated.
Main Topics:
The dataset contains questions on a number of lifestyle and criminal justice topics. The YLS face-to-face (CAPI) interview asked respondents about: Schooling: these questions were asked in the present tense for those still at secondary school and retrospectively for those who had left. They cover qualifications, opinion of school, truancy, exclusion and bullying. Work/training/unemployment: experience and reasons for unemployment, type of employment and management responsibility. Income and expenditure: this covers income and level of financial responsibility, debt and financial hardship. Family life: both at age 15 and in present, covering parents' occupation, who respondent lives with and family structure. Housing and experience of leaving home: household structure, marital status, relationship history, number of children, whether respondent has ever run away from home, experience of care and homelessness. Leisure: use of free time, clubs and activities, time spent with family and friends, time spent alone, opinion of local facilities. Worries: worry about crime, world and personal events. Feeling of safety in the community and on public transport, avoidance behaviour. Victimisation: experience of theft of unattended property, theft from the person, assault and sexual harrassment. Attitudes to crime and punishment. Contact with the police: both public- and police-initiated contact, including stop and search. The self-completion (CASI) questionnaire covered: Smoking, drinking, use and attitudes towards illegal drugs, and offending (including whether respondents had ever offended, offending in the last year and information on cautions and court appearances. Standard Measures ACORN categorisation Registrar General's Social Classification is used to measure social class.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
the YLS sample was based on that used by the British Crime Survey (BCS) (see under GN:33174), and also screening and focused enumeration. For full details of sampling, please see published technical report.
Face-to-face interview
Self-completion
