Understanding Society Waves 6 to 8

了解社会，英国家庭纵向研究，长期跟踪个人，定期收集每个样本个人及其家庭的数据。这项研究将提供关于个人一级的变化及其与家庭变化的关系的资料。这些小组为了解世界各地社会面临的关键问题提供了重要资源。它们提供了关于儿童贫困或残疾等状况持续存在的独特信息，提供了关于影响婚姻和离婚等关键生活转变的因素的独特信息，并提供了关于早期生活环境对后来结果的影响的信息。它们还支持与政策形成和评价有关的研究，并使改进和更可靠的分析技术成为可能。仅基于对每个个体的单一观察的横断面数据无法达到这些目的。它涉及新的和正在出现的研究问题，例如家庭行为对环境的影响、与健康有关的行为或联合王国社会中正在出现的多样性。该研究的实地工作始于2008年的创新小组，其目的是改进收集调查数据的方法，主要小组始于2009年。该投标包括第6至第8波的数据收集和一系列其他活动，以开发方法，支持用户并向一系列受众推广它。《理解社会》基于一个非常大的样本量，代表了英国社会的各个年龄段和各个方面，并以捕获个人在其家庭环境及其变化中的信息为结构。目标样本，40,000户，提供了一个独特的机会来探索其他纵向调查太小而无法支持有效研究的问题。英国社会的多样性也体现在纳入少数族裔样本上。它包括年度访谈，以捕捉社会进程的短期动态，观察事件发生的时间和持续时间。对这一愿景也至关重要的是打算长期进行，以便捕捉生命历程和代际传递过程。通过问卷调查和其他方式收集的实质性内容是多用途和多主题的，支持广泛的研究议程。两个重点领域是支持种族研究和发展探索个人行为、个人生物学特征和社会环境之间关系的生物社会调查。数据将直接从受访者处收集，并从外部来源链接。内容的选择是基于与学术和研究用户社区的广泛协商。创新和方法发展是关键。它是发展新科学知识的重要试验台，并将为发展新的方法论工具提供动力。关于收集和分析方法的研究方案将使《了解社会》成为社会科学研究实践更广泛改进的催化剂。我们的活动计划是围绕调查的发展和传播的主要阶段：内容规范，研究设计的各个方面的发展，以最高标准收集数据，准备，增强和记录数据以供发布，支持用户最适当地使用数据和促进研究以确保最大的影响。这一时期的核心活动包括：通过网络访谈进行收集；扩大与研究有关的行政数据的范围；并在研究人员中推广这项研究，包括健康和生物测量。这一建议是基于埃塞克斯大学、华威大学和教育学院的团队的经验，他们在前五年成功地完成了这项研究。

Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, follows individuals over time, regularly collecting data about each sample individual and his or her household. The study will provide information on both change at the individual level and how it relates to household change. Such panels have provided a major resource for understanding key issues which face societies around the world. They provide unique information on the persistence of such states as child poverty or disability, on factors which influence key life transitions, such as marriage and divorce, and they provide information on the effects of earlier life circumstances on later outcomes. They also support research relevant to the formation and evaluation of policy and they enable improved and more reliable analytical techniques. Cross-sectional data, based on only a single observation of each individual cannot achieve these aims. It addresses new and emerging research issues, such as the environmental impacts of household behaviour, health related behaviours or emerging diversity in UK society Fieldwork for the study started in 2008 with the Innovation Panel, which aims to improve methods of collecting survey data, and the main panel which began in 2009. This bid covers data collection for wave 6 to 8 and a range of other activities to develop methodology and to support users and promote it to a range of audiences. Understanding Society is based on a very large sample size, representing all ages and all aspects of UK society, and structured to capture information about individuals in their household context and its changes. The target sample, 40,000 households, provides a unique opportunity to explore issues for which other longitudinal surveys are too small to support effective research. The diversity of UK society is also captured by the inclusion of an ethnic minority boost sample. It involves annual interviews to capture the short term dynamics of social processes, observing the timing and duration of events close to the point at which they occur. Also critical to the vision is the intention to carry on for the long term so as to capture life course and intergenerational transmission processes. The substantive content, collected both by questionnaire and by other means, is multi-purpose and multi-topic, supporting a wide range of research agendas. Two areas of emphasis are support for ethnicity research and development of a biosocial survey exploring the relationships between individual behaviour, individual biological characteristics and social environment. Data will be collected directly from respondents and linked from external sources. Selection of content is based on widespread consultation with the academic and research user communities. Innovation and methodological development are key. It is a crucial test bed for the development of new scientific knowledge and will give momentum to development of new methodological tools. A programme of research on collection and analysis methods will make Understanding Society a catalyst for wider improvements in the practice of social science research. Our plan of activities is based around the major stages in the development and dissemination of a survey: specification of content, development on all aspects of the study design, collection of data to the highest standards, preparing, enhancing and documenting data for release, support for users in the most appropriate uses of the data and promotion of the study to ensure maximum impact. Core activities for this period include: development of collection by web interviews; extending the range of administrative data linked to the study; and promoting the use of the study amongst researchers, including the health and biological measures. This proposal is based on the experience of the team at Essex, Warwick and the Institute of Education which have successfully delivered the study through its first five years.