The latest wave of the Understanding Society main survey is available from the UK Data Service.
Wave 14 focused on collecting expanded data on family life. New sets of questions were included to identify and collect information on non-resident children, family networks, living apart couple relationships, and fertility histories.
This wave also includes new entrants who joined in the Wave 14 boost sample. Boost sample members were asked expanded modules to understand their background and families. These included questions on partnership histories, date of first job, parents’ educational background and national identity, reasons for migration and whether English is their first language.
Understanding Society Wave 14 is available from the UK Data Service, Study Number 6614.
New modules were included on:
- Work illness
- The National Citizen Service
- Generalised trust
- Non-resident children
The COVID 19 module in Wave 14 focused on questions about long COVID, to identify areas where the pandemic has had long-term impacts on life. This wave also included questions on consenting to data linkage to HMRC and NEST pensions data.
Each wave of Understanding Society includes content which is asked in each survey, plus rotating content which periodically appears in the questionnaire. In Wave 14 rotating content includes questions on:
- Voluntary work and charitable giving
- Domestic labour
- Commuting
- Work conditions
- Transport behaviour
- Family networks
- Social support
- Physical work
- Identity
Participants in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also received questions on devolved elections.
Young people aged 10 to 15 receive their own survey. In Wave 14 this included questions on:
- Activities outside of school
- Computer use
- Household chores
- Friendship networks and boyfriend/girlfriend relationships
- Self esteem
- Binge drinking and drug use
- Fighting
- Ethnic and religious identity
- Future intentions for marriage, having a child, and work
The working paper Improving questionnaire content for parents and families living apart explains the changes made to the questionnaire content in Waves 14 and 15 to improve the identification of parents living apart and the data Understanding Society captures about families across households.
More information on using the dataset can be found in the main survey user guide. The Understanding Society User Support team runs training throughout the year for new and experienced data users. You can find all our training in the training hub.
Covid 19EducationEmploymentEthnicity and immigrationFamily and householdsHealth and wellbeingIncome and expenditureMoney and financesPolitics and social attitudesSocial mobilityTransport and environmentYoung people
