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COVID-19

From April 2020 to September 2021 participants from our main Understanding Society sample were asked to complete a short web-survey (with a telephone option in some months). This survey covered the changing impact of the pandemic on the welfare of UK individuals, families and wider communities. Participants completed a regular survey, which included core content designed to track changes, alongside variable content adapted as the coronavirus situation developed.

Researchers can link the data from this survey to answers respondents have given in previous (and future) waves of the annual Understanding Society survey.

Data from the COVID-19 questionnaire is available to researchers via the UK Data Service.

The COVID-19 study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Health Foundation. Serology testing was funded by the COVID-19 Longitudinal Health and Wealth – National Core Study. Fieldwork for the web survey was carried out by Ipsos MORI and for the telephone survey by Kantar. Both agencies conducted COVID-19 youth surveys.

A telephone interview was offered to respondents who wished to take part but who lived in a household where no-one was a regular internet user. Fieldwork for the first telephone interviews was late-May to early-June 2020; fieldwork for the second telephone interviews was late-November to early-December 2020.

Young people aged 10-15 were also asked to contribute to the COVID-19 study: they were sent a paper self-completion Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in July 2020, a longer paper self-completion questionnaire in November 2020, and another SDQ paper self-completion questionnaire in March 2021.

You can see which topics were covered in the survey by looking at the long term content plan.

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