Description:
The questions contained in SASAS questionnaires one for 2009 were asked of approximately 3500 respondents.
Topics included in the questionnaires are: democracy, intergroup relations, public services: education, moral issues, crime and safety, disability, voting, demographics and other classificatory variables.
The data set has 3305 cases and 361 variables.
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) second Master Sample, which was designed in 2007 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 2009 SASAS round of interviewing, a sub-sample of 500 EAs (PSUs) was drawn from the second master sample. Three explicit stratification variables were used, namely province, geographic type and majority population group. The survey is conducted annually and the 2009 survey is the seventh wave in the series.
The core module will remain constant for subsequent annual SASAS surveys with the aim of monitoring change and continuity in a variety of socio-economic and socio-political variables. In addition, a number of themes will be 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 questionnaire are: democracy, national identity and pride, education, moral issues, crime, voting, demographics and other classificatory variables.
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. In 2009, the chosen subject was the social inequality and the module was carried in version one of the questionnaire (Qs.160-209. This data can be accessed through the ISSP data portal (see link above).
Face-to-face interview
National Population: Adults (aged 16 and older)
The South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS) is a nationally representative survey series that has been conducted on an annual basis by the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) since 2003. The survey has been designed to yield a representative sample of adults aged 16 years and older. The sampling frame for the survey is the HSRC's second Master Sample, which was designed in 2007 and consists of 1 000 primary sampling units (PSUs). The 2001 population census enumerator areas (EAs) were used as PSUs.
These PSUs (EAs) were drawn, with probability proportional to size, from a sampling frame created by Professor David Stoker containing all 80,787 of the 2001 EAs. This sampling frame uses the estimated number of dwelling units (DUs) in an EA (PSU) as a measure of size. The sampling frame was annually updated to coincide with StatsSA's mid-year population estimates in respect of the following variables: province, gender, population group and age group. In updating the 2007 version of this sampling frame, additional use was made of (a) the GeoTerraImage (GTI) residential structure count in all metropolitan EAs in 2004/2006 and (b) the ESKOM counts of dwelling units in all cities, towns, townships and villages.
The HSRC's second master sample excludes special institutions (such as hospitals, military camps, old age homes, school and university hostels), recreational areas, industrial areas, vacant EAs as well as the 1000 EAs included in the first HSRC's master sample (2003-2006). It therefore focuses on dwelling units or visiting points as secondary sampling units (SSUs), which have been defined as 'separate (non-vacant) residential stands, addresses, structures, flats, homesteads, etc.'.
For the 2009 SASAS round of interviewing, a sub-sample of 500 PSUs was drawn from the HSRC's 2nd 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 probability proportional to size sampling technique with the estimated number of dwelling units in the PSU as measure of size. In each of these drawn PSUs, 14 dwelling units were selected and systematically grouped into two sub-samples of seven, each corresponding to the two SASAS questionnaire versions.
Selection of individuals
Interviewers called at each visiting point selected from the 2nd 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 .
