British Household Panel Survey: Waves 1-18, 1991-2009

<p>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</p>The <i>British Household Panel Survey</i> (BHPS) ran for 18 waves, from 1991-2009, and was conducted by the <a href="http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/ulsc/" title="ESRC UK Longitudinal Studies Centre">ESRC UK Longitudinal Studies Centre</a> (ULSC), together with the <a href="http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/" title="Institute for Social and Economic Research">Institute for Social and Economic Research</a> (ISER) at the University of Essex. The ULSC, established in 1999, is a continuation of the research resource component of the <a href="http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/misoc/" title="ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change">ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change</a> (MISOC), established in 1989. In addition to running panel studies, ISER undertakes a programme of research based on panel data, using <I>Understanding Society</I> (see below), the BHPS and other national panels to monitor and measure social change. <br> <br> The main objective of the BHPS was to further understanding of social and economic change at the individual and household level in Britain, and to identify, model and forecast such changes and their causes and consequences in relation to a range of socio-economic variables. It was designed as an annual survey of each adult member (aged 16 years and over) of a nationally representative sample of more than 5,000 households, making a total of approximately 10,000 individual interviews. The same individuals were re-interviewed in successive waves and, if they left their original households, all adult members of their new households were also interviewed. Children were interviewed once they reach the age of 16; there was also a special survey of household members aged 11-15 included in the BHPS from Wave 4 onwards (the <i>British Youth Panel</i>, or BYP). From Wave 9, two additional samples were added to the BHPS in Scotland and Wales, and at Wave 11 an additional sample from Northern Ireland (which formed the <i>Northern Ireland Household Panel Study</i> or NIHPS), was added to increase the sample to cover the whole of the United Kingdom. For Waves 7-11, the BHPS also provided data for the European Community Household Panel</i> (ECHP). For details of sampling, methodology and changes to the survey over time, see Volume A of the documentation (Introduction, Technical Report and Appendices). <br> <br> <b>BHPS Geographic data and other related studies:</b><ul><li>BHPS Medium-level Geographical Identifiers are also available, subject to conditional access;</li><li>BHPS Low-level Geographical Identifiers are also available to registered users, subject to special licence access;</li><li>British National Grid postcode grid references for each BHPS household surveyed are also available, subject to Secure Access conditions;</li><li>Several datasets from ISER-based BHPS research, and teaching/sampler data are also available;</li><li>For details of all related data, see the <a href="https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=200005" title="BHPS">BHPS series</a> webpage.</li></ul><br> <b>Understanding Society:</b><br> From Wave 19, the BHPS was subsumed into a new longitudinal study called <i>Understanding Society</i>, or the <i>United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study</i> (UKHLS), conducted by ISER. The BHPS Wave 19 is part of Understanding Society Wave 2 (January 2010-March 2011) (see under SN 6614). The BHPS fieldwork moved accordingly from September-April to January-March. This means that the gap between interviews 18 and 19 for the BHPS sample ranged between 16 and 30 months rather than the standard 12 months. From Wave 2, the BHPS sample is a permanent part of Understanding Society and interviews are conducted annually again. BHPS sample members have an identifier within the Understanding Society datasets, allowing BHPS users to match BHPS Wave 1-18 data to Understanding Society Wave 2 (and onwards) data. Further information and links to studies are available on the <a href="https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=2000053" title="Understanding Society">Understanding Society series</a> webpage.<br> <br><B>Main Topics</B>:<br>The questionnaire package consists of the following elements:<ul><li>a household coversheet</li><li>a household composition form comprising a complete listing of all household members, together with some brief summary data of their gender, date of birth, marital and employment status and their relationship to the household reference person</li><li>a short household questionnaire containing questions about the accommodation and tenure and some household-level measures of consumption</li><li> an individual schedule asked of every adult member of the household (aged 16 or over), covering: neighbourhood; individual demographics; residential mobility; health and caring; current employment and earnings; employment changes over the past year; lifetime childbirth, marital and relationship history (Wave 2 for the main sample, supplemented for new entrants from Wave 8 onwards); employment status history (Wave 2 only); values and opinions; household finances and organisation</li><li>a self-completion questionnaire including subjective or attitudinal questions particularly vulnerable to the influence of other people's presence during completion, or potentially sensitive questions requiring additional privacy. It also contains attitudinal items and questions on social support</li><li>a proxy schedule: the questionnaire is a much shortened version of the individual questionnaire, collecting some demographic, health, and employment details, as well as a summary income measure</li><li>a telephone questionnaire, developed from the proxy schedule, for use when all other efforts to achieve a face-to-face interview have failed</li><li>from Wave 4 to Wave 11, the youth questionnaire (aged 11-16 years) was administered using a 'Walkman' personal cassette tape player and a blank self-completion answer grid, as some of the questions cover sensitive issues. From Wave 12 onwards, a normal self-completion script has been used</li></ul>Standard Measures:<br> <i>General Health Questionnaire</i> (GHQ);<br> <i>Activities of Daily Living</i> (ADL) schedule;<br> <i>Short Form 36 Health Measure</i> (SF36);<br> The <i>Big Five</i> Personality Traits measure.<br>