British Social Attitudes Survey, 1986

This survey is part of a continuing series designed to monitor trends in a wide range of social attitudes in Great Britain. The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is similar in purpose to the General Social Survey carried out by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) in the United States. The BSA questionnaire had two parts, one administered by an interviewer and the other completed by the respondent. As in the past, the 1986 interview questionnaire contained a number of "core" questions covering the major topic areas of defense, the economy, labor market participation, and the welfare state. The 1986 self-enumerated questionnaire was devoted to a series of questions on a range of social, economic, political, and moral issues. Topics that received attention (by section) include: (1) newspaper readership, politics, and defense, (2) economic issues and policies, household income, economic activity, and labor market participation, (3) the welfare state and National Health Service, (4) social class and race, (5A) families and children, (5B) politics and trust, (6A) road traffic law, (6B) industry and jobs, (7A) food and health, (7B) countryside issues, (8) housing, and (9) classification items. Beginning in 1985, an international initiative funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), also contributed a module to the BSA. The topic of the ISSP module in this collection was family support networks. Additional demographic data gathered included age, gender, education, occupation, household income, marital status, social class, and religious and political affiliations.