Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The aims of the <i>Decade of Change</i> (DCS) project were to extend and deepen conceptual, empirical and methodological understanding of individual and household plans and strategies, by re-interviewing a group of individuals and their partners interviewed in Kirkcaldy in 1986-1987 as part of the <i>Social Change and Economic Life Initiative</i> (SCELI). The SCELI data are held at the Archive under SN:2798. More specifically, the objectives of the project were to: examine how plans and strategies evolve over time, by comparing the late 1980s responses with those given ten years later, and by exploring with respondents their accounts of why these changes have occurred; seek to relate the changing patterns of plans and strategies to some of the structural continuities in the wider and local economy and society over the past ten years, by comparing the responses given by respondents aged 30-45 years and 46-60 ten years ago, with those aged 30-45 and 46-60 now, and by discussing with respondents their perceptions of the consequences for their households of these changes; explore, further than in the original study, the extent to which it is meaningful to retain a concept of 'household' strategies as opposed to 'his' and 'her' strategies; investigate these issues by re-interviewing, using survey methodology, as many of the original Kirkcaldy 'household sample' interviewed in the SCELI as can be traced and are willing to be interviewed, and by carrying out semi-structured intensive interviews with 60 couples divided between those now aged 30-45, 46-60 and 61-70, including those couples traced who were previously interviewed in this way; examine further the relationship between a survey and a more qualitative approach to these issues; attempt to throw some light on the reliability of retrospective questions in this kind of study.
Main Topics:
File dcs180.exp: the schedule is divided into nine sections: A. Life History Update; B. Employment Update; C. Work; D. Retirement; E. Housing; F. Best/Worst Events in Life (Feelings/(in)security); G. Networks and Social Support; H. Resources; J. Ambitions and Plans. In most sections, data were collected from both original respondents to the SCELI Household Survey (ORs) and their present partners (Ps) wherever possible. Some questions were asked of the ORs only and some were joint responses. Where separate responses from the ORs and their partners are available, they are coded as br... or bp... respectively; otherwise they are coded as br... (where b stands for DCS to distinguish it from SCELI; r for OR and p for partner. The rest follows the sequence in Questionnaire Sections and Question Numbers of the schedule - see documentation for further details). Responses from unpartnered respondents are matched with those of the partnered and the variable names follow the sequence of question numbers of the couple schedule. File dcssceli180.exp: This is a merged file obtained by linking the data obtained in DCS to that obtained in SCELI for the same original respondents and relating to their partners at that time. For detailed information on the SCELI data, please see SCELI questionnaires and supporting documentation. These can be downloaded as the SCELI User Guide from the Data Archive web pages through BIRON (see SN:2798), or may be requested at the time of order for this dataset. Standard Measures Occupations are coded according to three classifications: Registrar General (RG); Socio-economic Groups (SEG) and Goldthorpe.
No sampling (total universe)
all traceable original SCELI respondents who were willing to be re-interviewed were included in the
Face-to-face interview
Compilation or synthesis of existing material
merged file dcssceli180.exp links the data from SCELI in 1986-1987 to the data for the same origina
