Kinder Houston Area Survey, 1982-2014: Successive Representative Samples of Harris County Residents

The Kinder Houston Area Survey is a longitudinal study that began
in May 1982 after Houston, Texas, recovered from the recession of the
mid-1980s. The overall purpose of this research was to measure
systematically the public responses to the new economic, educational,
and environmental challenges, and to make the findings of this
continuing project readily available to civic and business leaders, to
the general public, and to research scholars. Part 1, All Responses
from 25 Successive Samples, contains all the responses from the
successive representative samples of Harris County residents from 1982
through 2014. These are the data that enabled the project to analyze
continuity and change among area residents over the course of 26
years. In 13 of the 14 surveys (the years from 1994 through 2014, the
one exception being 1996), the surveys were expanded with oversample
interviews in Houston's ethnic communities. Using identical
random-selection procedures, and terminating after the first few
questions if the respondent was not of the ethnic background required,
additional interviews were conducted in each of the years to enlarge
and equalize the samples of Anglo, African American, and Hispanic
respondents at about 500 each. In 1995 and 2002, the research also
included large representative samples (N=500) from Houston's Asian
communities, with one-fourth of the interviews conducted in
Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Korean -- the only such surveys in
the country. These additional interviews are included in Part 2,
Additional Oversample Interviews.
The data contained in Part 2 are for Restricted-Use of Part 1, All Responses from 25 Successive Samples.
The data contained in Part 3 are
based on a 14-year total of 6,576 Anglos, 6,086 African Americans,
6,094 Hispanics, and 1,250 Asians, along with 387 others, and are of
particular value in assessing the similarities and differences both
within and among Houston's (and America's) four largest ethnic
groups. Beginning in 2003, the data files have incorporated detailed
information from the 2000 Census on the characteristics of the
respondent's neighborhood, not only at the level of home ZIP code, but
also by Census tract and block group.
In Part 4, Restricted-Use information
from 2000 Census, the data record the population and geographical
area of each of the three sectors, distributions by ethnicity and
immigrant status, age and gender composition, employment and commuting
patterns, and levels of education and income. With this information
incorporated in the datasets covering five years of expanded surveys,
researchers are able to connect the respondents' perceptions and
experiences with information on the neighborhoods in which they live,
thereby adding a contextual dimension to analyses of the factors that
account for individual differences in attitudes and beliefs.
Conducted during February and March of each year, the interviews
measured perspectives on the local and national economy, on poverty
programs, inter-ethnic relationships. Also captured were respondents'
beliefs about discrimination and affirmative action, education, crime,
health care, taxation, and community service, as well as their
assessments of downtown development, mobility and transit, land-use
controls and environmental concerns, and their attitudes toward
abortion, homosexuality, and other aspects of the social agenda. Also
recorded were religious and political orientations, as well as an
array of demographic and immigration characteristics, socioeconomic
indicators, and family structures.