The Wales Life and Times Studies (WLTS) have grown out of a programme of work conducted by the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends (CREST) in collaboration with the Institute of Welsh Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in response to the constitutional changes brought about by devolution.
In 1997 a referendum study was conducted in Wales and Scotland (held at the UK Data Archive under SN:3952), followed by election studies covering the first elections in 1999 to the Welsh National Assembly (held under SN:4180) and Scottish Parliament, both funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). When the ESRC announced its intention to carry out surveys in all parts of the UK in 2001 and 2003 under the Devolution and Constitutional Change Programme, the Welsh component became WLTS.
An earlier Welsh election study, covering the 1979 general election, is also held at the UK Data Archive under SN:1591, but is not part of the WLTS series.
The Welsh Election Study (Wales Life and Times Study), 2001 covered the Welsh element of the general election held that year. CREST was responsible for designing compatible questions for the study that were also fielded in England on the British Social Attitudes Survey, in Scotland on the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, and in Northern Ireland on the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey.
Main Topics
The dataset contains the replies of 1,085 respondents in Wales to questions on: media consumption, electoral registration, party identification and voting (including recall of 1997 and 1999 vote), evaluations of the government's performance, political issues, political trust, national identity, constitutional issues, effectiveness of the new institutions, public expenditure and taxation, whether various political parties work for the interests of various social groups, left-right values and Welsh language. Classificatory information was also collected, including national and ethnic origin, religion, geographic origin, tenure, marital status, economic activity and socio-economic status, union membership, income, education and internet access.
Standard Measures:
Left-right scale - self-completion questionnaire Q1a-f.
Welsh Election Study (Wales Life and Times Study), 2001
4546
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Jones, R. Wyn | University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Department of International Politics |
| Trystan, D. | University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Department of International Politics |
| Heath, A. | University of Oxford. Department of Sociology |
| National Centre for Social Research |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| John Curtice, University of Strathclyde and Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends (CREST). |
Copyright held jointly between University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and National Centre for Social Research
| Name | Abbreviation | Role | Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economic and Social Research Council |
| Name | Affiliation | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| ESDS Access and Preservation | University of Essex. UK Data Archive |
| Name | Affiliation | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| National Centre for Social Research |
2002-08-14
Grant Number:
L219252042
Project No:
P ; 2070
| Start | End | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 2001-06-01 | 2001-09-30 |
Individuals
Numeric data; Individual (micro) level
Repeated cross-sectional study. The study was repeated in 2003 (see SN:5052).
(A) 1,760 (target) 1,582 (obtained) Traceable, residential and occupied; (B) 1,085 (obtained) Weighted sample size;
Face-to-face interview; Self-completion
WTFACTOR is the weighting variable for the dataset. The data must be weighted for all analysis, to take account of differing selection probabilities. To simplify, households are selected with equal probability, but only one person in each household is interviewed. People in small households therefore have a higher probability of selection than people in large households and the weighting corrects for this.
The data were processed to the UK Data Archive's 'A*' standard. This is the Archive's highest standard, and means that an extremely rigorous and comprehensive series of checks was carried out to ensure the quality of the data and documentation. Briefly, the most important procedures were as follows. Firstly, checks were made that the number of cases and variables matched the depositor's records. Secondly, checks were made that all variables had comprehensible variable labels and all nominal (categorical) variables had comprehensible value labels. Where possible, either with reference to the documentation and/or in communication with the depositor, labels were accordingly edited or created. Thirdly, logical checks were performed to ensure that nominal (categorical) variables had values within the range defined (either by value labels or in the depositor's documentation). Lastly, any data or documentation that breached confidentiality rules were altered or suppressed to preserve anonymity.
Many of the variables were formatted as F1 in the original SPSS data file. These were changed to F2 to ensure values display correctly in the Nesstar software. Variables r2seg2, p2soc and p2seg2 also had formats extended to F4 for the same reason.
1) Variables with labels beginning 'Q2.' at the end of the dataset correspond to the questions on the self-completion questionnaire. They can only be identified by the question number in the documentation as the corresponding variable names are only included in the SPSS dataset.
2) There are many derived variables in the dataset - these are generally noted in the footnotes of the documentation. Variable name changes are also generally indicated in the User Guide.
ESDS Access and Preservation, UK Data Archive; Data online via UK Data Archive Download
Help desk: help@esds.ac.uk
The depositor has specified that registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. See terms and conditions for further information.
Study Description: English; Study Documentation: English
4546.NSDstat
Welsh Election Study (Wales Life and Times Study) file
1085
281
NSDstat 200203
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