Description:
The harmonised core module data are available in the combined data set. The questions contained in the core modules of the two SASAS questionnaires for 2003 were asked of 7000 respondents, while the remaining rotating modules were asked of a half sample of approximately 3500 respondents each.
The combined data set contains 4980 records and 269 variables.
Core topics included in the questionnaires are: democracy, identity, public services, health status, HIV/AIDS, health behaviour, moral issues, crime, voting, demographics and other classificatory variables, nature of families and family authority.
This version of the combined dataset should be used when analysis is to be performed at individual level.
Abstract:
The primary objective of the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS) is to design, develop and implement a conceptually and methodologically robust study of changing social attitudes and values in South Africa. In meeting this objective, the HSRC is carefully and consistently monitoring and providing insight into changes in attitudes among various socio-demographic groupings. SASAS is intended to provide a unique long-term account of the social fabric of modern South Africa, and of how its changing political and institutional structures interact over time with changing social attitudes and values.
The survey has been designed to yield a national representative sample of adults aged 16 and older, using the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) Master Sample, which was designed in 2002 and consists of 1000 primary sampling units (PSUs). These PSUs were drawn, with probability proportional to size from a pre-census 2001 list of 80780 enumerator areas (EAs).
As the basis of the 2003 SASAS round of interviewing, a sub-sample of 500 EAs (PSUs) was drawn from the master sample. Three explicit stratification variables were used, namely province, geographic type and majority population group. The survey is conducted annually and the 2003 survey is the first wave in the series.
To accommodate the wide variety of topics included in the survey, two questionnaires are administered simultaneously. Apart from the standard set of demographic and background variables, each version of the questionnaire contained a harmonised core module.
The questions contained in the core modules of the two SASAS questionnaires (demographics and core thematic issues) were asked of 7000 respondents, while the remaining rotating modules were asked of a half sample of approximately 3500 respondents each.
The core module remains constant for with the aim of monitoring change and continuity in a variety of socio-economic and socio-political variables. In addition, a number of themes are accommodated in rotation. The rotating element of the survey consists of two or more topic-specific modules in each round of interviewing and is directed at measuring a range of policy and academic concerns and issues that require more detailed examination at a specific point in time than the multi-topic core module would permit.
Topics included in the questionnaires are: democracy, Identity, public services, health status, HIV/AIDS, health behaviour, moral issues, crime, voting, demographics and other classificatory variables, nature of families and family authority.
Rotating modules are: communication, national identity, democracy part 2, poverty, generational and gender attitudes and family/household violence.
International Social Survey Programme. (ISSP web page: www.issp.org/)
The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is run by a group of research organisations, each of which undertakes to field annually an agreed module of questions on a chosen topic area. SASAS 2003 represents the formalisation of South Africa's inclusion in the ISSP, the intention being to include the module in one of the SASAS questionnaires in each round of interviewing. Each module is chosen for repetition at intervals to allow comparisons both between countries (membership currently stands at 48) and over time.
Face-to-face interview
National population: Adults (aged 16 and older)
The South African Social Attitudes Survey has been designed to yield a representative sample of adults aged 16 and older. The sampling frame for the survey is the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) Master Sample, which was designed in 2002 and consists of 1 000 primary sampling units (PSUs). The 2001 population census enumerator areas (EAs) were used as PSUs. These PSUs were drawn, with probability proportional to size, from a pre-census 2001 list of EAs provided by Statistics South Africa.
The Master Sample excludes special institutions (such as hospitals, military camps, old age homes, school and university hostels), recreational areas, industrial areas and vacant EAs. It therefore focuses on dwelling units or visiting points as secondary sampling units, which have been defined as `separate (non-vacant) residential stands, addresses, structures, flats, homesteads, etc.
As the basis of the 2003 SASAS round of interviewing, a sub-sample of 500 PSUs was drawn from the HSRC's Master Sample. Three explicit stratification variables were used, namely province, geographic type and majority population group.
Within each stratum, the allocated number of PSUs was drawn using proportional to size probability sampling. In each of these drawn PSUs, two clusters of 11 dwelling units each were drawn. These 22 dwelling units in each drawn PSU were systematically grouped into three sub-samples of sizes seven, seven and eight respectively, to give the two SASAS samples and a client survey that was run in parallel.
Selection of individuals
Interviewers called at each visiting point selected from the HSRC Master Sample and listed all those eligible for inclusion in the sample, that is, all persons currently aged 16 or over and resident at the selected visiting point. The interviewer then selected one respondent using a random selection procedure based on a Kish grid.
