Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The object of the study was to update earlier BBC studies of the use of time by providing recent and accurate data on a) the availability of radios, televisions and VCRs to individuals; b) their activities throughout 24 hours of the day with special emphasis on c) their use of radio, television and VCR.
Main Topics:
Respondents were questioned in detail about their activities on the day preceding the interview and additional information was recorded on household possessions, leisure pursuits, household structure, favourite radio and TV channels.
Quota sample
the basic sample design was a quota sample of individuals within a probability sample of areas. The Primary Sampling Units were parliamentary constituencies. To ensure adequate sample sizes, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were over-sampled. The sampling frame was stratified by BBC Region, ITV Region within BBC region, and constituency ACORN type. One hundred constituencies were selected with probability proportional to size within National Region. 70 constituencies were selected in England and 10 constituencies were selected in each of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In each selected constituency two wards were selected with probability proportional to size. The wards were randomly allocated to the two waves of the survey. Within each ward four polling districts were selected with probability proportional to size and were randomly allocated to the four interviewer working days. Sufficient streets were selected in each polling district for an interviewer to complete a quota of 15 in-home interviews. For each of the two waves of Daily Life in the 1980's (summer and winter) a sample of 6000 individuals aged four and over was required. For each wave, approximately 1500 interviews were carried out on each of four days of the week:- on Saturday interviewing about Friday on Sunday interviewing about Saturday on Monday interviewing about Sunday on Wednesday or Thursday interviewing about Tuesday or Wednesday. The samples for the two waves were selected to be as similar as possible to enable comparisions to be made.
Face-to-face interview
Diaries
