ARK is a resource dedicated to making social and political information on Northern Ireland available to all

ARK currently has 7 resources – Life and Times Survey – ORB – Online Research Bank – CAIN – Conflict Archive on the Internet – Survey Analysis Unit – Surveys on Line – NI Elections –

Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey (NIHPS) Analysis Unit

The Role of ARK • NIHPS Analysis Unit – Develop NI expertise in handling the survey data – Analyse the data – Promote the survey among the research community in NI – Exploit the data to its maximum benefit for policymaking

Format of the day – Introduction to the NIHPS • How the survey is carried out • Main contents of the questionnaires • Overview of the data files – Using the On-Line data documentation • Finding the way around the website – Working with the NIHPS data files

• The NIHPS is an extension of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) • Why do panel survey?

– Can track the movement of individuals and households within society – Useful for examining what factors lead to the movement into and out of poverty, ill health etc.

• Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) responsible for the technical aspects of the survey across the UK – Design of the survey – Questionnaire development – Data validation and weighting • Fieldwork in NI carried out by NISRA

• Wave 1 – households drawn randomly from across NI – achieved sample 1,978 households and 3,458 individuals – Household Response – 69% – Individual Response – 89%

• Wave 2 response rates – Within households at least 1 person responding – 87% – Complete Household Response for all eligible individuals – 70% – Interviews at Waves 1 and 2 – 83% • Fieldwork for Wave 3 ongoing

Unique value of the NIHPS: • Follows the same representative sample of individuals over a period of years • Household-based, interviewing every adult member of sampled households • Allows change to be measured at the gross as well as the net level

Sample Membership Status: • Original Sample Members (OSMs) -always eligible to be interviewed – All members of Wave 1 households – Their natural children born after the start of the study • Temporary Sample Members (TSMs) – eligible only while living with an OSM – People who form households with OSMs after the start of the study

Sample Membership Status: • Permanent Sample Members (PSMs) – TSMs may become PSMs if they are deemed to have a sufficiently strong continuing bond to an OSM to justify following them even if they cease to live with that person

There are 3 main parts to the NIHPS • Household Interview – Household Reference Person (HRP) • Individual Interviews - each member of the household aged 16+ (rising 16’s) • Self-complete questionnaire - each member of the household aged 16+ (rising 16’s)

• In addition: – Proxy Interview for household members unavailable at the time of the interview – At Wave 4, young people aged 11-15 will complete young person’s questionnaire, then join adult panel at age 16

There are 3 components to the NIHPS: • Core component – Repeated every year • Rotating core component – Usually repeated every 2/3 years • Variable component – Asked once in the life of the panel study e.g. where born, age left school

Content of Wave 1 of the NIHPS • Household Section – Household Grid – Tenure – Housing Condition/Costs – Consumer Durables – Loans

Individual Section • Parental Background (job status when respondent was aged 14) • Demographic information • Health - physical • Employment History • Values and opinions

• Income from all sources including interest on savings, receipt of benefits etc. • Expenditure - spending patterns • Household Tasks • Major events in person's life in the last year

Self-Completion Form • General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) • General well-being • Roles within the family and support networks

Section 75 Groups: • Age • Gender • Marital status • Religion • Race • Dependants • Political Opinion • Disability

Wave 2 of the NIHPS • Household questionnaire • Individual questionnaire – Marital, fertility and employment history • Self-completion questionnaire – GHQ – Attitudes to marriage/homosexuality/life/partner/friend ships

Wave 3 of the NIHPS • Household questionnaire • Individual questionnaire – Parenting • Self-completion questionnaire – GHQ – Attitudes to aspects of family life/life in general

• There are 8 files for NI Wave 1 – KHHSAMP – KHHRESP – KINDALL – KINDSAMP – KINDRESP – KEGOALT – KINCOME – KJOBHIST

• The 8 files are linked by 3 key variables – PID (Personal Identification) – KHID (Household Identification) – KPNO (Person Number within household) • PID is a unique person number (all waves) • KHID and KPNO – wave specific numbers

• KHHSAMP – contains fieldwork control, interview outcome and weighting information – one record for each issued household • KHHRESP – contains data from the household questionnaire and household level information for respondent households – one record for each household

• KINDSAMP – contains information on the survey outcome for all individuals in a household • KINDALL – contains individual level variables derived from the Household Composition Form – the only file that contains individual level data on children and other non-respondents

• KINDRESP – contains individual data from full and proxy questionnaires – all those who were eligible

and

part in the survey who took • KEGOALT – provides a mechanism for identifying the relationship of each individual in a household to all others – two records for each relationship pair

• KINCOME – benefit payment data – one record for each payment recorded at a list of specified sources • KJOBHIST – contains information from the employment history section of the questionnaire

• Weighting the data – Several weight variables for NIHPS Wave 1 which adjust for non-response • KXHWTSW2 – Household weight • KXRWTSW2 – Respondent individual weight • KXEWTSW2 – Enumerated individual weight

• Weighting the NI data within the BHPS (Cross-sectional weights) – scaled so as ensure that the NI sample contains the expected proportion of the UK population • KXHWTSW1 (Households) • KXRWTSW1 (Respondents) • KXEWTSW1 (Enumerated individuals)

How to Access the Data • Download Wave 11 BHPS data from UK Data Archive (includes NIHPS Wave 1) http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/ NI User Group • Will be established as a forum for exchanging ideas, problems, solutions