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The social capital module of the General Household

Survey

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Melissa Coulthard

Social Inequalities Branch

Social Analysis and Reporting Division

Formally

Social Survey Division

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The presentation will cover

• General Household Survey (GHS)

• Development of the social capital module

• 5 social capital topics

• Results

Social capital module on the GHS

ONS and the University of Surrey

commissioned by

the Health Development Agency

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General Household Survey (GHS)

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Benefits of using GHS

• Prestigious, high quality survey

• Large sample size

• Cover a wide range of topics

• Possibility of repeating module in future years

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Development of the social capital module

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Previous national surveys

• HEA Health and Lifestyle survey

• 1998 Health Education and monitoring Survey

• British Household Panel Survey

• pilot questions for the Health Survey for England 2000

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Social capital module

• Cognitive interviewing

Surrey Social and Market Research

August 1999

• Piloted by ONS in September 1999

• Full ‘dress rehearsal’

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Social capital module

• 10 to 15 minutes to complete

• well-received by respondents

• one randomly selected individual aged 16 or over in each household

• 7875 respondents

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5 social capital areas Community based

– views about the local area

– civic engagement

– neighbourliness and reciprocity

Individual based

– social networks

– social support

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Summary variables

1) scales

- factor analysis

2) composite variables

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5 social capital areas

– views about the local area

Area Definition

(By area I mean within about a 15-20 minute walk or 5-10 minute

drive from your home)

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Thinking generally about what you expect of local services, how would you rate the following;

• Social & leisure facilities for people like yourself• Facilities for young children up to the age of 12• Facilities for teenagers (those aged 13 to 17)• Rubbish Collection• Local Health services• Local schools, colleges and adult education• Local police service

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SHOW CARD

• Very Good• Good• Average• Poor• Very Poor• Don’t know or have had no experience

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Local facilities score social and leisure facilities for people like

yourself facilities for young children up to the age of 12 facilities for teenagers (aged 13 to 17) local health service local schools, colleges and adult education police services

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Local problems score

speed and volume of traffic parking car crime rubbish lying around dog mess graffiti or vandalism level of noise teenagers hanging around on the streets alcohol or drug use

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5 social capital areas

– civic engagement

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Feels civically engaged

• felt they were well informed

• felt they could influence decisions

• and agreed or strongly agreed that local people could affect decisions relating to the neighbourhood

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Not civically engaged

• not classified as ‘feeling civically engaged’

• not involved in a local organisation

• and had not taken any action to solve a local problem in the last three years

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5 social capital areas

– neighbourliness and reciprocity

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Reciprocity score

• whether their neighbours look out for each other

• whether they have done a favour for a neighbour• or vice versa

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Neighbours score know their neighbours trust their neighbours neighbours look out for each other have done a favour for a neighbour neighbour have done a favour for them how often they spoke to neighbours

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5 social capital areas

– social networks

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Social networks

• how often they see, or speak to relatives, friends or neighbours

• how many close friends or relatives live nearby

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Social network indicators

• Has a satisfactory friendship networks

• Has a satisfactory relatives networks

• Has neither

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5 social capital areas

– social support

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Social support

People were asked if they could request help if they:

• needed a lift to somewhere urgently

• were ill in bed and needed help at home

• were in financial difficulty and needed to borrow £100

You need a lift to be somewhere urgently. Could you ask anyone for help?

Can you look at the card and tell me who you would ask for help

Husband/wife/partnerOther household memberRelative (outside household)FriendNeighbourVoluntary or other organisationOtherWould prefer not to ask for help

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• If you had a serious personal crisis, how many people, if any, do you feel you could turn to for comfort and support.

Analysis

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The same socio-demographic factors were used in each of the regression models as follows:

• age• sex• ethnicity• education level• socio-economic group• employment status• tenure• length of residence in the area• household type• Government Office Region

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Additionally

• marital status, • availability of a car or van, • NHS Regional Office area • and the index of Multiple Deprivation 2000

are included in the crosstabulations.

Results

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Perceptions of the local area

• 87% enjoyed living in their local area

• 77% felt that rubbish collection was good or very good

• 71% rated local health services as good or very good

• 60% felt the area had good local transport

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Perceptions of the local area

• 60% said speed or volume of road traffic was a problem

• 46% said parking in residential streets was a problem

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Perceptions of the local area

• 60% felt very safe and 33% felt fairly safe walking alone during the day-time.

• 26% felt unsafe walking alone after dark.

• 20% never went out alone after dark.

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Civic engagement

• 59% felt well informed about local affairs• 56% felt that communities could influence decisions• 26% felt they personally could influence a decision in

the area• 21% were involved in a local organisation,• 27% had taken action to solve a local problem

• 18% of respondents felt civically engaged

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Neighbourliness

• 73% believed that neighbours in their area looked out for each other.

• 74% had done a favour for a neighbour during the last 3 months.

• 72% had received a favour from a neighbour during the last 3 months.

• 53% answered yes to all three of these questions.

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Neighbourliness

• 46% of respondents said they knew most or many people in the neighbourhood.

• 58% felt they could trust most or many of the people in their neighbourhood.

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Social networks

• People were more likely to have a number of close friends living nearby than relatives

• 66% had a satisfactory friendship network• 52% had a satisfactory relatives network• 20% of people had neither

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Social support

• 58% had at least 5 people they could turn to in a serious personal crisis.

• 18% had less than three people they could turn to.• 2% had nobody to turn to.

• Of those who had support, 90% reported that they had at least one person they could turn to living nearby.

Relationships between summary indicators and

socio-demographic characteristics

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• Tenure

• Length of residence

• Government Office Region

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• People living in London were the least neighbourly

• North East, North West and South West were the most neighbourly areas.

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The longer people had lived in an area the more likely they were to have …

• a high neighbourliness score

• satisfactory social networks

• a poor perception of local facilities

• reported high levels of local problems.

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People in social sector housing were

• less likely than to enjoy living in their local area • more likely to perceive the local facilities to be poor • more likely to report high levels of local problems.

than those with other forms of tenure

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People living in owner occupied accommodation had

• higher levels of reciprocity• were more likely to enjoy living in the area• feel safe walking after dark

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People in households with dependent children

were more likely to give and receive favours from neighbours

than those in households without dependent children.

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People in lone parent or single person households

had lower levels of social support

than those living in households containing a couple.

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Lone-parents with dependent children were

• less likely to enjoy living in their area• were more likely to report high levels of local

problems

than people in other types of households

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www.statistics.gov.uk/socialcapital/project.asp:

Guide:Assessing people’s perceptions of their neighbourhood and community involvement

Results:People’s perceptions of their neighbourhood and community involvement

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Summary– GHS

– development of social capital

– 5 main concepts

– data analysis

– publications

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The social capital module of the General Household

Survey