South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS) 2009: Questionnaire 1 - All provinces

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).