Understanding Society can be used to teach longitudinal data analysis. To support lecturers and teachers we produce datasets that are specifically designed to be used by students and new data users.
Teaching datasets can be downloaded from the UK Data Service. There are currently three teaching datasets available.
Understanding Society: Longitudinal Teaching Dataset
This data file combines the responses from adult interviews from the General Population and Ethnic Minority Boost samples from Wave 1 to Wave 9 (2009-2018) into one long file format. The dataset also includes some basic household level information, such as household income. This dataset is designed for those teaching longitudinal data methods and for data users who are new to using longitudinal data and would like more guidance in analysing Understanding Society. The teaching dataset comes with a User Guide, which explains the survey and the dataset, and analysis guidance using Stata syntax. The teaching dataset has been created using Stata statistical software, but the datafile can also be downloaded in SPSS and tab-delimited text formats. The User Guide provides guidance on converting the datafile in Stata format to R.
Download the dataset: Understanding Society: Longitudinal Teaching Dataset, Waves 1-9, 2009-2018
Understanding Society: Ethnicity and Health Teaching Dataset
This is a teaching resource for those who are new to data analysis. It is a step-by-step guide starting from exploring a survey, understanding the structure of the survey data and then using the data to do some simple exercises to measure differences in health and wellbeing across ethnic groups. To make it easier to use the teaching dataset accompanying this teaching resource only includes responses given by adults (16+ year olds) during the first interview to questions about ethnicity, health and wellbeing and some key socio-demographic characteristics such as age, sex, education, income, labour market status etc. The statistical software used to construct the dataset is Stata, but it is also available to download in SPSS and tab-delimited text formats.
This teaching dataset includes worksheets that can be used in lessons.
- Worksheet one helps students how to use data from a large scale survey to analyse the relationship between ethnicity and health.
- Worksheet two is a data exercise where students find out how far health varies across ethnic groups.
Download the dataset: Understanding Society: Ethnicity and Health Teaching Dataset Wave 1, 2009-2010
Understanding Society: COVID-19 Teaching Dataset
The Covid survey set out, from April 2020, to find out how the pandemic was affecting people’s lives. As the UK went into the first lockdown, Understanding Society developed a way to capture these experiences by asking participants to complete a short web survey – initially monthly. The 20-minute questionnaire had core questions to track changes in people’s lives, plus content that varied as the situation developed. It covers issues such as
- working at home and home-schooling
- COVID symptoms
- health and wellbeing
- social contact and neighbourhood cohesion.
The new teaching dataset includes data from the original COVID-19 study in two files:
- a cross-sectional file with data mainly from Wave 4 (July 2020)
- a longitudinal file with data mainly from Wave 1, 4 and 9 (April and July 2020, and September 2021).
The teaching dataset is a collaboration between Understanding Society and the UK Data Service.
Download the dataset: Understanding Society: COVID-19 Study Teaching Dataset, 2020-2021