International Social Survey Programme: Social Relations and Support Systems - ISSP 2001

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuous programme of cross-national collaboration running annual surveys on topics important for the social sciences. The programme started in 1984 with four founding members - Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States – and has now grown to almost 50 member countries from all over the world. As the surveys are designed for replication, they can be used for both, cross-national and cross-time comparisons. Each ISSP module focuses on a specific topic, which is repeated in regular time intervals. Please, consult the documentation for details on how the national ISSP surveys are fielded. The present study focuses on questions about social relations and social network.<br>Number of adult brothers and sisters; frequency of personal
(visits, meetings) and non-personal contacts (telephone, letter, fax or
e-mail) with the parents, brothers and sisters and own children; time
for the journey to where the mother lives, frequency of the contacts to
relatives (uncles and aunts, cousins, parents-in-law, brothers-in-law
or sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews, godparents); number of close
friends at work place, in the neighbourhood, and in general; sex of
best close friend; frequency of contact to the best friend;
participation in activities of groups like sports club, charitable
organisation, neighbourhood, political party, an association, and a
church or religious organisation; first and second contact person for
support in respondent’s household, at money problems and in case of a
depression; frequency of helping others in household, by loaning money,
by talking to depressed persons and in giving help at job search;
information source at the search for the present job; importance of
character traits of close friends: Intelligence, helpfulness,
understanding and enjoyable company (scale); attitude to the moral
obligation of adult children to care for their parents; people who are
better off should help friends who are less well off; attitude to
development of friendships to once own advantage; attitude to a state
responsibility to provide the childcare and an adequate standard of
living for old people; personal luck assessment; feeling of being
overused by family, relatives or friends; trust in neighbours (scale);
duration of living at the place of residence; political efficacy;
frequency of political discussions with friends.

Demography: Country; number of children less than 18 years and over 18
years; sex; age; marital status; steady life-partner; education: years
in school; employment status of the person asked and his partner
(ISCO88); supervisor status; self-employed and number of employees;
hours worked weekly; religious denomination; church attendance;
self-assessment of social class; union membership; political
self-assessment on a left-right continuum; household size; household
composition; urban or rural area.

Additionally coded: interview method.