Eurobarometer 50.1 (Nov-Dec 1998)

Attitude to Internet use, marks of quality for foods,
questions on family sociology and foreign aid.
Topics:
Internet and computer:
use of computers or media equipment in leisure time and occupation as well as
intent to purchase within the next six months;
interest in communication nets and selected Internet offers;
readiness to pay a monthly usage fee for these offers;
reasons for lack of interest.
Food and food brands:
frequency of consumption of selected kinds of food in one's household and
most important selection criteria in purchasing food;
most important criteria for judging the quality of foods;
knowledge test or degree of familiarity of the abbreviation and the full form
of marks of quality identifying region of origin of foods
(A.O.C., D.O.C., P.D.O. and P.G.I.);
sources of information about such marks of quality;
frequency of consumption of foods with these marks of quality;
assumed guarantees of quality or merely sales promotion through this
mark of quality;
knowledge about the guaranteed product quality with P.D.O. and P.G.I.;
price elasticity with foods with guaranteed designation of origin;
most important product information to recognize conventionally produced foods;
familiarity of a European logo for guaranteed traditional production;
significance of this logo;
higher trust and increased willingness to use products with
designation of origin;
trust in a European product symbol.
Family:
family term (kernal family, extended family);
most important influence factors for the decision about the number of desired
children;
importance of partner and children;
most important functions of the family in today's society on the one hand and
for respondent personally on the other;
approval or rejection of marriage and reasons;
obstacles to divorce from the view of respondent;
stages in life cycle completed:
leaving parents, moving together with partner,
children, divorce, death of partner,
change of location for occupational reasons;
desirable improvements in family policy by the government;
membership and commitment in selected organizations and
time expended for these organizations;
attitude to future increased duty of adult children to care for their parents;
preferred distribution of tasks between father and mother in child-raising
regarding changing diapers, buying clothing, punishment, playing etc.;
assessment of personal quality of life;
satisfaction with social services and public health system of the country;
preference for accomodation of parents in a home
or their remaining in the neighborhood surroundings;
preference for private or governmental financial responsibility for
caring for older people;
importance of areas of life;
effects of one's own marriage and children on selected areas of life (scale);
preference for more governmental or more private responsibility for selected
family, political, social, cultural and environmental tasks;
assessment of what older people are leaving young people regarding jobs,
freedom, solidarity, ethics, environment, equality, quality of life, social and
personal security, purchasing power and working conditions.
Developing countries:
assessment of the importance of foreign aid and reasons for slight importance;
assessment of the proportion of foreign aid in the national budget
in one's country as well as in the EU;
preference for an increase, reduction or for the same level of foreign aid
by the country on the one hand and by the European Commission on the other;
responsibility of Europe, USA or Japan for foreign aid in Africa,
South America and Asia;
reasons to reject the responsibility Europe for Africa;
assessment of the problem-solving efficiency of EU foreign aid.
In Germany the following questions were posed:
politically most trustworthy EU countries;
economically most efficient EU countries;
EU countries most committed in the EU;
most reliable EU countries in business.
In Italy the following was additionally asked:
assessment of the political trustworthiness, economic efficiency,
committment in the EU and business reliability of Italy;
assessment of the current weight of Italy in the EU;
greatest political and economic hinderances for a stronger economic
significance for Italy in the EU.
In Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the UK the following was additionally
asked:
most important tasks of the EU and assessment of coping with
these tasks within the next few years;
personal significance of EU for respondent;
local ties or solidarity with region, country, Europe or the entire world;
assessment of the usefulness or necessity of the European currency union;
extent of trust of respondent in local government, regional government,
national government and the EU.
Demography:
nationality (multiple responses possible);
self-classification on a left-right continuum;
marital status;
age at conclusion of school training;
sex;
age;
size of household;
number of children in household;
current professional position;
head of household;
primary earner in household and his occupation;
household income.
Also encoded was:
date of interview;
time of start of interview;
length of interview;
number of persons present during interview;
willingness of respondent to cooperate;
city size;
region;
possession of a telephone;
interview language.