Quality of Canadian Life: Social Change in Canada, 1977

The Quality of Life Project was a five-year research program that began in 1976 and was officially titled "Social Change in Canada: Trends in Attitudes, Values, and Perceptions." The survey data for the project were collected through the Survey Research Centre at the Institute for Behavioural Research, York University, Ontario. The project's overall purpose was to develop time series measures of the perceived quality of life and of other subjective social indicators for Canada and its major regions. Three national surveys took place in the years 1977, 1979, and 1981, each including more than 3,000 respondents. A panel of about 2,000 respondents was followed through the three sets of interviews. In 1977 and 1981, the data were gathered in sample surveys of not only the general public of Canada but also selected Canadian decision-makers (top business executives, politicians, civil servants, and trade union leaders) to provide for comparisons between the two groups. This data collection contains the 1977 data, designed to measure each respondent's descriptions of, attitudes about, and satisfaction with a variety of domains of everyday life. They include: neighborhood/city/town/county of residence, life as a whole, Canadian and provincial governments, work and housework, personal finances, housing, life goals and values, personal alienation and efficacy, leisure activities and spare time, education, health and physical condition, friendships, marriage and romantic relationships, children, current Canadian political and social issues, and the news media. Background information and interviewer's observational data are also included.