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What do we ask our participants about?

Every year our participants complete their questionnaire either via a face-to-face interview or by using an online questionnaire. A core set of questions are asked every year and others are asked at less frequent intervals. You can find full information about the questions asked each year in the Long-Term Content Plan.

All adults complete an interview. For children in the household who are up to age 10 the parents or care-givers answer questions about them. Children aged 10 to 15 have their own paper-based questionnaire with questions appropriate to their age group and when they turn 16 they become eligible for the full adult interview. 

We ask our adult participants about:

Family life

  • Partnerships and children
  • Relationships with other household members
  • Gender identity, sex at birth, ethnicity, religion and language
  • Important life events
  • Their own, parents’ and grandparents’ countries of birth and citizenship
  • Attitudes to gender roles at home and at work
  • Caring for people inside and outside the household
  • Domestic labour
  • Parenting styles
  • Childcare
  • Migration intentions
  • Fertility intentions
  • Housing
  • Home energy use
  • Car ownership and transport use
  • Use of technology and online activity

Income, wealth and expenditure

  • Household finances
  • Income, wealth, savings and assets
  • Pensions and pension planning
  • Benefits
  • Financial strain and material deprivation
  • Food poverty

Education and employment

  • Education and qualifications
  • Jobs, self-employment, retirement
  • Professional development and training
  • Job satisfaction
  • Educational and employment aspirations
  • Returning to work after maternity/paternity leave
  • Second jobs and the gig economy
  • Commuting

Civic participation

  • Political engagement and voting behaviour
  • Volunteering
  • The local neighbourhood 
  • How often they go to the cinema, theatre, museums
  • Environmental attitudes and behaviours
  • News and media use

Health, wellbeing and health behaviours

  • Physical health and health conditions
  • Health service use
  • Long-term disability and illness
  • Whether they smoke and how often
  • Whether they drink and how often
  • Mental health
  • Life satisfaction
  • Loneliness
  • Sleep patterns
  • Friendships
  • Leisure activities
  • Experience of racial harrassment
  • We also collected blood samples for objective health measure and genetic information in Wave 2 of the Study

For young people aged 10-15 we ask them about

  • Their family life
  • School and homework
  • Friendships and social networks
  • Self esteem and happiness
  • Their health
  • Risky behaviours such as drinking, smoking and drug taking
  • The local neighbourhood and fear of crime
  • Using technology and social media
  • Their political and social attitudes
  • Environmental behaviour and attitudes
  • Savings behaviour and pocket money
  • Future intentions

You can find the questionnaires we use for each Wave of the Study here

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