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Finding Data: Data on Social Attitudes & Values

ACCESS TO THESE DATA FILES ARE RESTRICTED TO CURRENTLY ENROLLED/EMPLOYED MEMBERS OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY.

• Selected Resources for:
  Social Attitudes & Values - Non USA ::
  
  
• Biennial Media Consumption Survey [1998 - 2002]
  Collects data on the public's use of, and attitudes toward, the Internet and traditional news outlets. Respondents are asked questions concerning their use of newspapers, television news, radio news, and news magazines.

• Bowling Alone: Collapse and Revival of American Community (Datasets)
  3 primary data sets were used extensively in the research reported in Bowling Alone: Collapse and Revival of American Community:
  • I. The DDB Life Style data, made available through the generosity of DDB Worldwide of Chicago, Illinois, who retain appropriate rights, including copyright, on these data, while allowing fair use for scholarly and academic research. Copyright 1975-1998 by DDB Worldwide. Also available for downloading is a simple summary of the 389 variables in this data set. In all this data set covers 1975-1998 with a total unweighted sample size of 84989.
  • II. The 14 state-level measures of social capital, along with the Comprehensive Social Capital Index, are described in Table 4 and pp. 290-291, of Bowling Alone; the underlying sources of these data are given in the end notes to those pages.
  • III. The 3rd data set, the Roper Social and Political Trends archive, is archived at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.

• Class Structure and Class Consciousness: Merged Multi-Nation File (1980-1983)
  Measures how such social concepts as authority, autonomy, and hierarchy relate to the social, economic, and occupational positions of individuals, thus providing a systematic means for analyzing social class structure. Addressed work-related issues such as supervision, decision-making, autonomy, respondent's formal position in the hierarchy, ownership, credentials, and income. Other work- related data describe the size, industrial sector, and government or corporate linkages of the individual's employer. Further information was gathered on the class origins of the respondent's family and of the families of the respondent's spouse and friends. Data on class-related experiences such as unemployment and union participation were also collected, as well as data on the division of power and labor in the household. In addition, contained a broad range of questions on social and political attitudes and on the respondent's political participation. Universe: USA: 18 & older working, not working but wanting to work, or housewives with working spouses. Sweden: 18-65 in the work force. Norway: 16-66 employed, unemployed, or housewives. Canada: Non-institutionalized & non-disabled 15-65 employed, unemployed or housewives. Finland: 18-65 employed, unemployed or housewives.

• Community Indicators Survey (1999-2002)
  Documents the social health of 26 communities in which the Knight brothers published newspapers. Local area surveys were conducted in each of the 26 communities in both 1999 and 2002. In 2002, a number of the local area surveys were supplemented with regional surveys or surveys of a neighboring city. National surveys were also conducted in order to provide comparative benchmark measures. Measured citizens' civic engagement and attitudes concerning seven topic areas: education, arts and culture, children and social welfare, community development, homelessness, literacy, and citizenship.

• Dynamics of Idealism: Volunteers for Civil Rights (1965-1982)
  Represents questionnaires administered to volunteers in the 1965 Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) before and after a two and a half month voter registration effort in May and the Fall of 1965, and a follow-up study in 1982. Topics covered include the volunteer's background, attitudes toward racial and political issues, commitment to social change, and prior experience with Blacks and activism.

• General Social Survey (1972-2008) (GSS)
  Produced biennially since 1994, the GSS is a long running survey of social, cultural and political indicators. In addition to the GSS, topic modules, designed to investigate new issues or to expand the coverage of an existing subject, are administered. Examples of topic modules include computer and Internet, racial and ethnic prejudice, and child mental-health stigma. The GSS has participated since 1985 in the International Social Survey Program. A listing of modules performed through 2008 is available. For quick crosstabs and correlations use the SDA version which is available for free through University of California at Berkeley. For more information, see the NORC website.

  Sample Size: Over the life of the survey, more than 43,000 respondents, with about 3,000 added biennially.

• International Social Survey Program (ISSP) (1985+)
  1998-2005 is also available in an easy to use comparative program. For the latest see the site's web page. A listing of modules performed through 2008 is available. Ongoing program of crossnational collaboration. Develops topical modules dealing with important areas of social science as supplements to regular national surveys. Every survey includes questions about general attitudes toward various social issues such as the legal system, sex, and the economy. Special topics have included the environment, the role of government, social inequality, social support, family and gender issues, work orientation, the impact of religious background, behavior, and beliefs on social and political preferences, and national identity. Participating countries vary for each topical module.

• Monitoring the Future. 1976+
  Ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary school students, college students, and young adults. Each year, a total of some 50,000 8th, 10th and 12th grade students are surveyed. A number of questions on drug use are asked.

  Sample Size: 8th grade - approx. 18,000; 10th grade - approx. 17,000; 12th grade - approx. 16,000.

• Murray Research Archive
  Important studies include Robert White's Lives in Progress, Jack Block's Lives Through Time, Lewis Terman's long-term longitudinal study of gifted children, and Life Cycle Study of Children with High Ability. Topics well-represented in the archive include sexual orientation, gender roles and the status of women, race, and socio-economic status. Application may need to be made directly to the Murray Research Archive for permission to use the data.

• National Health and Social Life Survey (1992)
  Extensive information on the sexual experiences and other social, demographic, attitudinal, and health-related characteristics of adults in the United States. Commonly called the NORC Sex Survey.

• North American Jewish Data Bank
  Repository for demographic and other quantitative social scientific surveys about Jews in the United States and Canada. Archives the National Jewish Population Surveys as well as a number of community surveys.

• Pew Research Center For The People & The Press data archive
  The Pew Research Center is an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. They are best known for regular national surveys that measure public attentiveness to major news stories, and for their polling that charts trends in values and fundamental political and social attitudes.

• Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, 2000
  Comprises both a national sample of some 3,000 respondents and community respondents in 41 communities nationwide (across 29 states) covering an additional 26,700 respondents. Measures everything from levels of giving blood, to hanging out with friends, to participating in various groups and associations, to levels of trust, to participation in group arts and group sports, to the diversity of our friendship patterns.

• World Database of Happiness: States of Nations
  Includes summary information from social surveys indicating levels of happiness in about 95 countries around the world, along with data on possibal causal factors.

• World Values Survey and European Values Survey. 1981-1984, 1990-1993, 1995-1997, 1999-2005.
  Designed to enable a crossnational comparison of values and norms on a wide variety of topics and to monitor changes in values and attitudes across the globe. A variety of questions on religion and morality were included. Data is currently available for 1981-1984, 1990-1993, 1995-1997, and 1999-2005.

• Youth Studies Series (1965-1997)
  Set of surveys designed to assess political continuity and change across time for biologically-related generations and to gauge the impact of life-stage events and historical trends on the behaviors and attitudes of respondents. A national sample of high school seniors and their parents was first surveyed in 1965. Subsequent surveys of the same individuals were conducted in 1973, 1982, and 1997. The general objective was to study the dynamics of political attitudes and behaviors by obtaining data on the same individuals as they aged from approximately 18 years of age in 1965 to 50 years of age in 1997. In this manner, the Youth Studies Series facilitates the analysis of generational, life cycle, and historical effects and political influences on relationships within the family.