Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, which was established in September 2017, provides a world-leading approach to gathering data on how children engage with sport and physical activity. This school-based survey is the first and largest established physical activity survey with children and young people in England. It gives anyone working with children aged 5-16 key insight to help understand children's attitudes and behaviours around sport and physical activity. The results will shape and influence local decision-making as well as inform government policy on the PE and Sport Premium, Childhood Obesity Plan and other cross-departmental programmes. More general information about the study can be found on the Sport England Active Lives Survey webpage and the Active Lives Online website, including reports and data tables.
The Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, 2019-2020 began as the usual school-based survey (i.e. completed at school as part of lessons). From 20 March 2020, schools, colleges and nurseries were closed in the UK due to the COVID-19 pandemic and remained closed until 1 June 2020, when there was a phased reopening for reception, and Years 1 and 6. The Active Lives survey fieldwork in Spring term finished two weeks early before the end of term, in line with the school closures. Due to the closure of schools, the survey had to be adapted for at home completion. The adaptions involved minor questionnaire changes (e.g. to ensure the wording was appropriate for both the new lockdown situation and to account for the new survey completion method at home) and communication changes. For further details on the changes, please see the accompanying technical report. The circumstances and adaptations resulted in a delay to survey fieldwork re-starting. This means that the data does not cover the full lockdown period, and instead re-starts from mid-May 2020 (when the survey was relaunched). Sample targets were also reduced as a result of the pandemic, resulting in a smaller proportion of summer term responses for 2019-20 when compared to previous years. As part of Sport England’s official publication, an additional Coronavirus report was produced, which outlines changes during the ‘easing restrictions’ phase of lockdown from mid-May to the end of July, comparing the summer term in 2020 with summer 2019. Due to the reduced summer term sample, it is recommended to analyse within term and/or school phase for academic year 2019-20. The survey identifies how participation varies across different activities and sports, by regions of England, between school types and terms, and between different demographic groups in the population. The survey measures levels of activity (active, fairly active and less active), attitudes towards sport and physical activity, swimming capability, the proportion of children and young people that volunteer in sport, sports spectating, and wellbeing measures such as happiness and life satisfaction. The questionnaire was designed to enable analysis of the findings by a broad range of variables, such as gender, family affluence and school year. The following datasets have been provided: Main dataset: includes responses from children and young people from school years 3 to 11, as well as responses from parents of children in years 1-2. The parents of children in years 1-2 provide behavioural answers about their child’s activity levels, they do not provide attitudinal information. Using this main dataset, full analyses can be carried out into sports and physical activity participation, levels of activity, volunteering (years 5 to 11), etc. Weighting is required when using this dataset (wt_gross / wt_gross.csplan files are available for SPSS users who can utilise them).Year 1-2 dataset: includes responses from children in school years 1-2 directly, providing their attitudinal responses (e.g. whether they like playing sport and find it easy). Analysis can be carried out into feelings towards swimming, enjoyment for being active, happiness etc. Weighting is required when using this dataset (wt_gross / wt_gross.csplan files are available for SPSS users who can utilise them).Teacher dataset – this .sav file includes response from the teachers at schools selected for the survey. Analysis can be carried out into school facilities available, length of PE lessons, whether swimming lessons are offered, etc. Weighting was formerly not available, however, as Sport England have started to publish the Teacher data, from December 2023 we decide to apply weighting to the data. The Teacher dataset now includes weighting by applying the ‘wt_teacher’ weighting variable. For further information about the variables available for analysis, and the relevant school years asked survey questions, please see the supporting documentation. Please read the documentation before using the datasets. More general information about the study can be found on the Sport England Active Lives Survey webpages.Latest edition informationFor the second edition (January 2024), the Teacher dataset now includes a weighting variable (‘wt_teacher’). Previously, weighting was not available for these data.
Main Topics:Topics covered in the Active Lives Children and Young People Survey include:Sport and physical activity participationWell-beingHealth
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Web-based interview
