The 2002 General Social Survey (GSS)

Adrian asked me to look into the GSS and this is what I found!

Overview-the main purpose of the supplementary topics in the 2002 GSS is to provide specific detailed information to policy makers.

• First survey of this type
• Conducted by the ABS
• Intended to be repeated every 4 years (March-July 2002)
• Much of the content unchanged, to enable changes over time to be measured (hallelujah!) and
• A flexible component to enable the inclusion of contemporary and emerging issues in each survey cycle.

The aims of the GSS are to:

• present data on a range of social dimensions of the Australian community at a single point in time
• by collecting data on a range of topics from the same individual, enable analysis of the interrelationship of social circumstances and outcomes, including the exploration of multiple advantage and disadvantage
• provide a base for comparing social circumstances and outcomes over time and across population groups

Evolvement:

• ABS undertook extensive consultation with key government users at both State and Commonwealth level
• Many Stakeholders
• Review found considerable interest in a general social survey and support from many users
• many social phenomena are inter-related and social policy is becoming less sectoral as a consequence
• surveys which allow inter-relationships between different aspects of people's lives to be explored are important

Information Collected:

• Details of health and disability, housing, education, labour force, transport, crime, and indicators of family and community involvement
• economic items (income and selected assets, liabilities and financial stress indicators)
• demographics
• Three supplementary topics
• extent of computer and internet access,
• attendance at cultural and sporting events, and
• participation in sport or other physical activity.

Purpose-the key objectives of the GSS are:

• to collect data from a range of areas of social concern, to allow information to be connected in ways not generally available, for use in developing broad-based social policy; and
• to provide national and state level estimates, recognizing state/territory responsibilities in many areas of social concern.

GSS obtains strategic information about the factors that determine outcomes such as health, living standards or social cohesion through the inter-relationships between different aspects of peoples' lives. For example:

• the social context of crime victimization;
• the relationship between the growing use of information technology and other areas of peoples' lives;
• the relationship of 'non-standard' (or precarious) employment with a range of social determinants and outcomes;
• the complex set of inter-relationships between individuals and their environments that influences health and well-being outcomes, such as financial stress and financial security;
• the material living standards that families achieve from the range of human and economic resources at their disposal; and
• the relationships between the strength of peoples' social networks and other areas of well-being.

The GSS also:

• provides overlap between question sets in the GSS and the more detailed Special Supplementary Surveys (SSSs) conducted by the ABS, to enable connections to be made;
• provides a foundation for, and a link with, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey;
• regularly provide a general picture of the social characteristics of Australia's adult population;
• compare the circumstances of a wide range of population groups; and
• measure changes over time.

The survey includes:

• All usual residents aged 18 years and over living in private dwellings.
• Urban and rural areas only. The exclusion of people living in remote and sparsely settled areas only has a minor impact on aggregate national and State level estimates.
• survey results are weighted to include persons living in these areas. In the Northern Territory, however, persons living in remote and sparsely settled areas account for over 20% of the population, and the survey results are not weighted to include persons living in sparsely populated areas.

Exclusions from the scope of the survey:

• Visitors to private dwellings are excluded, as are persons in institutions (such as hospitals and nursing homes) and special dwellings (such as hotels and boarding houses).
• non-Australian diplomatic staff and non-Australian members of their households;
• members of non-Australian defence forces stationed in Australia and their dependents; and
• overseas visitors whose usual place of residence is outside Australia.

Main outputs
Most data from the GSS will be available at the person level for persons aged 18 years and over. Certain data will also be compiled in relation to income units and households.

Core topics:

Demographic/core Age Sex Social marital status Registered marital status Family type Household type Relationship in household Number and age of people in household State or Territory of usual residence Capital city/balance of State Accessibility/Remoteness Index for Australia (ARIA) Socio-Economic Indexes For Areas (SEIFA) Country of birth Year of arrival Main language other than English spoken at home Proficiency in spoken English Health Self assessed health status Disability status Housing Tenure type (household) Landlord type (household) Rent/mortgage payments (household) Education Highest educational attainment Field of study Full-time/part-time study for qualification Type of educational institution Work Labour force status Number of employed persons in household Retirement status Occupation Multiple job holder Hours usually worked Full time/part time status Status in employment Leave entitlements in main job Expected future duration in current job

Income Income (personal, income unit and household) Main source of income (personal, income unit and household) Type of government pension/allowance Time on government support Financial stress Unable to borrow in an emergency (household) Cash flow problems (household) Dissaving (household) Assets and liabilities Value of home (household) Value of mortgage against home (household) Equity in home (household) Selected investments (household) Consumer debt (household) Information technology Use of a computer at home Frequency of internet access Type of internet activity Government services accessed via internet Transport Access to motor vehicles Perceived level of difficulty with transport Travel time to work Family and community Support for children outside household Support for others outside household Contact with family/friends Social activities Stressors Ability to ask for small favours Support in time of crisis Voluntary work Crime Victim of violent crime (assault) Victim of property crime (household) Feelings of safety at home

Supplementary topics:

Information technology Household use of IT at home Household access to technologies Access to a computer at home Access to the Internet at home Frequency of Internet access at home Intention to have Internet access at home Personal use of IT Use of a computer at home/work/other locations Type of computer activity Use of the Internet at home/work/other locations Type of Internet activity Technologies used to work from home Frequency of Internet access at home/work/ other locations Financial services accessed via telephone

Culture and recreation Culture/Leisure activities and venues Cultural/leisure activities or venues attended Frequency of attendance at specified cultural/leisure activity or venue Sporting events Sporting events attended Frequency of attendance at specified sporting event Physical recreation activities Participation in physical activity for exercise/recreation/sport Capacity in which participated in each activity Frequency of participation in each activity

Classifications:
The GSS will use standard ABS data items and classifications where appropriate. Major classifications to be used include:

· Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED);

· Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO);

· Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC); and

· Standard Australian Classification of Languages (ASCL).

GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL:

New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
South Australia
Western Australia
Tasmania
Northern Territory
ACT
Part of State Metropolitan
Part of State Extra-Metropolitan

COLLECTION HISTORY

Although the 2002 survey was the first GSS, some of the information collected had previously been included in a range of more specific ABS surveys. These include:

· Household Expenditure Survey;

· Survey of Income and Housing Costs;

· Australian Housing Survey;

· Survey of Disability Ageing and Carers;

· Survey of Education, Training and Information Technology;

· National Health Survey;

· Voluntary Work Survey;

· Crime and Safety Survey;

· Survey of Employment Arrangements and Superannuation;

· Labour Force Survey;

· Survey of Attendance at Selected Culture/Leisure Venues; and

· Survey of Sports Attendance.

Data availability comments

Results from the survey were made available in December 2003 in the form of a national level publication. The 2002 GSS Microdata has been available since 30th July 2004.

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/d36c95a5d2ce6cedca257098008362c8/bcca017fd0cdb8feca256dff007f9b88/$FILE/ATTJXZJL/GSS%20Output%20data%20items_2002.pdf

Summary of 2002 Results-The publication also provides information to assist users in interpreting and using the results of the survey, including descriptions of the survey design and methodology and notes on the quality of estimates and their comparability with data from other ABS surveys. 15,500 people aged 18 years and over across all states and territories of Australia.

· Information was collected about both the individuals being interviewed and about the households in which they lived.

Health and disability

The majority of Australians (84% of persons aged 18 years or over) consider themselves to be in good, very good or excellent health. The proportion of persons reporting fair or poor health generally increased with age, from 7% of those in the 18-24 and 25-34 years age groups to 38% of those aged 75 years or over.

Personal health appears to be correlated with household income. Of those persons in the lowest quintile (i.e. the bottom 20% of people ranked by their equivalised gross household incomes), 35% assessed their health as fair or poor, compared to only 6% for those in the highest quintile.
Of Australians aged 18 years or over, 40% (5,758,000 people) had a disability or long-term health condition with the rate increasing with age, from 23% of persons aged 18-24 years to 80% of persons aged 75 years or over. The proportion of people with a disability or long-term health condition involving one or more core activity limitations increased from 4% for those aged 18-24 years to 36% among those aged 75 years or over.

The proportion of people who assessed their health as good or better and had no disability or long-term health condition was highest in the 18-24 year age group (74%), falling as age increased to only 19% in the 75 years or over age group.

Transport:

Lack of access to transport due to problems of affordability, safety, availability, convenience, and appropriateness of the type of transport available can act as a barrier to people's participation in the range of social, civic and economic activities of mainstream society.

Most people aged 18 years or over (84%) felt that they could easily get to the places where they needed to go; 12% felt that they sometimes had difficulty getting to such places; while 4% felt that they either could not get to places needed to go or often had difficulties in doing so.

Persons in the youngest age group (18 to 24 year olds) and the oldest age group (75 years or over) were the most likely to experience difficulties in getting access to motor vehicles or easily getting to places they needed to go.

• The majority of Australian adults (84%) considered themselves to be in good, very good or excellent health. The proportion of people reporting fair or poor health generally increased with age, from 7% of those in the 18-24 and 25-34 years age groups to 38% of those aged 75 years or over. Approximately 40% reported a disability or long-term health condition with the rate again increasing with age.

Interesting questions:

Do you have access to motor vehicle?

(4 questions) Survey of participation in sport and recreational physical activities

Whether has participated in sport or recreational physical activity in last 12 months

Types of sport or recreational PA participated in last 12 months (2 hits for walking from same question).

Walking

Bush Walking

Sorry CTL no walking an animal!