Understanding Society User Support: Issueshttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/https://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/support/favicon.ico?15995719382018-01-09T17:18:44ZUnderstanding Society User Support
Redmine Support #893 (Rejected): Urgent/ish data mental health and social mediahttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/8932018-01-09T17:18:44Zdanilo di emidio
<p>I'm in a very urgent situation so if you could direct me or find me a dataset (or tell me how to find it) that looks at (young) people use of social media and its impact on mental health that would be very appreciated, it's for a project where I have to use the R software to compute statistics and show that my analysis helps (or not) to extent knowledge on the research problem (in my case the correlation between the use of social media and mental health).</p>
<p>my tutor suggested I came through your institution and after spending 2 days in your website I have given up, there is so much stuff. my tutor tells me first:</p>
<p>'Did you find any information on the variables you need through US?'</p>
<p>I had no clue what he meant, I guessed I would be interested in variables such as age? nationality? gender? ethnicity or as many variables as I want, based on my specific interest.</p>
<p>His reply was:</p>
<p>'The understanding society dataset is huge so in the first instance you would need to identify where the bits you need are. Look for a “code book” or other guide to the variables. You’re looking specifically for variable names and for the file name containing them. I can help with fiddly aspects of loading this into R but you need to go through the administrative side of getting to grips with what’s in the dataset'</p>
<p>I went as far as finding this page, then I get lost, when I click on some of the links I get e.g. 'variable 160'...what does it mean? that that study has 160 variables and I have to know what to unpick based on my want/need?</p>
<p>sorry if I'm asking silly questions but I have been chucked into a stats course and hve little knowledge and understanding. can you help? many thanks in advance. danilo</p> Support #881 (Closed): weighting values of zerohttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/8812017-11-21T11:51:17ZAndrew Brown
<p>Hi</p>
<p>Could I ask a question related to issue <a class="issue tracker-3 status-3 priority-5 priority-high2" title="Support: weights for pooled cross-sections over waves (a)-(f) (Resolved)" href="https://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/877">#877</a>?</p>
<p>For those cases not assigned a weight because 'a person in a household where there is no person who has been enumerated at every wave up to wave w will get a weight of zero. Such people should not be given a weight, as the weights for all other sample members are calculated in a way that compensates for these "missing" people'</p>
<p>How could/ should they be included in any analysis as SPSS 'makes them invisible' - could they be assigned the mean weight of 1? or should they be excluded from any analysis as the weighting for the other cases takes account of this?</p>
<p>Many thanks</p>
<p>Andrew</p> Support #758 (Closed): weights for pooled cross-sections over waves (a)-(f) https://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/7582017-03-29T17:32:21ZNico Ochmannnico.ochmann@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
<p>Hi there,</p>
<p>I am running hourly wage (constructed with w_paygu_dv) on a number of regressors in a pooled cross-section over all six waves. So far, I am using the whole sample based on GPS, EMBS, BHPS, IEMBS. I am not sure what kind of weights to use in this context given that I want to use all four samples. f_indinui_xw is available for all four for wave 6, so do I just go ahead and use that one? <br />Any piece of advice would be terrific. <br />Thanks a lot!</p> Support #532 (Closed): what is the head of household variablehttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/5322016-03-18T17:17:57Zaudrina limli.audrina@gmail.com
<p>I'm trying to identify the variable of the head of household to be combined with the head data from BHPS. BHPS has this direct indicator, however I searched every data set in the Understanding Society and could find it.</p>
<p>I also searched online and found that the head of household is called the reference person here. It says that people who answered the household survey is the reference person (or head of household). I looked at the household survey data (_hhresp) and there is more than one person who answered the survey (I used the variable _ivh1 to _ivh16).</p>
<p>Could you please help and direct me to the right variable of head of household? Thanks!</p> Support #506 (Closed): weights and design variables query Waves 2-5https://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/5062016-02-19T11:40:25ZOrla McBride
<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I was wondering if you could answer a question I have about weights and psu/strata variables for analysing Understanding Society data.</p>
<p>If I want to analyse data from the BPHS, GPS, and EMB samples from Wave 2-5, which comes from both the self-completion questionnaire and the main survey, should I use:</p>
<p>e_indscus_lw: Longitudinal adult self-completion questionnaire weight<br />e_strata: Sampling strata<br />e_psu: Primary sampling unit</p>
<p>Many thanks for your time.</p>
<p>Kind regards<br />Orla</p> Support #448 (Closed): weightshttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/4482015-11-16T00:17:28ZVernon Hedgevernonhedge@hotmail.co.uk
<p>I am looking at data exclusively at Wave C Understanding Society c_indresp.sav. I am planning to employ model based inference which may (as needs be) incorporate weight, strata and PSU into the model.
<p>I am having difficulty finding out how the weights were computed. I was hoping to use include the variables by which the weights were calculated within the model and specify PSU as level 2 random effects. I just cannot seem to find how the weights were calculated from Understanding Society documentation.</p>
</p>
<p>All the variables are from the c_indresp file. The 12 are listed here as name, “label”, [position number in variable view of c_indresp.sav]</p>
<p>c_sex_cr “sex (corrected)” [2292],<br />c_age_cr “age (corrected)” [2294],<br />c_birthy “year of birth” [2771], <br />c_big5c_dv “Conscientiousness” [2896],<br />c_big5o_dv “Openness” [2899],<br />c_hiqual_dv “Highest qualification” [2904], <br />c_gwri_dv “Cognitive ability: Immediate word recall: Number of correct items” [2915], <br />c_cgvfc_dv “Cognitive ability: Verbal fluency: Count of correct answers” [2932],<br />c_cgna_dv “Cognitive ability: Numeric ability: Count of items answered correctly”[2935], <br />c_jbnssec8_dv “Current job: Eight Class NS-SEC” [2947],</p>
<p>I am also having difficulty identifying which weight variable would be most appropriate to my analysis according to the w_xxxyyzz_aa scheme (p67 of the User Manual).</p>
<p>I can fill in this much c_indyyzz_xw – i.e., I know I am dealing with wave c only (so c_ and xw) and only with adult (16+) respondents (so ind).</p>
<p>I have identified 4 weight variables relevant to a cross-sectional design in the c_indresp file,</p>
<p>1. c_indpxub_xw “combined cross-sectional adult main or proxy interview weight” [3002], <br />2. c_indinub_xw “combined cross-sectional adult main interview weight” [3003], <br />3. c_indscub_xw “combined cross-sectional adult self-completion interview weight” [3004], <br />4. c_ind5mus_xw “cross-sectional extra 5 minute interview person weight” [3005].</p>
<p>The yy component must be either px, in, sc, or 5m. I think I can exclude 5m, as none of the variables on my list is on the list on Table 25 (p56) of the User Manual. Likewise, viewing Table 24 (p53), I think sc can be excluded.</p>
<p>As for the zz component it is tempting to just use "us" (for “understanding society”?). The user guide advises me that the "us" designation refers to “GPS [General Population Sample] and EMB samples” – is this what is meant by “Mainstage”?</p>
<p>Looking at the “Levels of Analysis” in Table 28 (p62), I think I can exclude level 4 “Adult or youth self-completion”. I cannot, however seem to find information on whether the c_indresp variables I am using are level 3 “Adult proxy and main interview” or level 2 “Adult main interview only (no proxy)”. Using the Understanding Society website to search each variable name they all return “Mainstage Variable”. I cannot tell from this which level of 1 to 4 is the most appropriate to select a weighting variable.</p>
<p>So the two problems I have are 1) identifying which variables were used to calculate survey weights and 2) identifying which ”xw“ survey weight variable is most appropriate to my analysis.</p>
<p>I would be enormously grateful for any clarification.</p> Support #362 (Closed): weights for longitudinal analysishttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/3622015-04-27T13:38:08ZAnonymous
<p>Dear Alita Nandi,</p>
<p>I am postgraduate student aat the University of Lund. I am working on my final dissertation and I am using the UKHLS survey. I want to study the so-called Healthy Immigrant Effect which says that immigrants tend to be healthier than native-born when they arrive to the country, but they converge to the health of natives as time passes.</p>
<p>It is the first time that I use the UKHLS survey and I have used the material of the online course, in particular the weighting section. I must admit that everything is really well explained and do files are specially helpful. However, I still have a doubt about which weight to pick for my analysis and I was wondering if you could help me on that.</p>
<p>To first study the inequalitites in health status between immigrants and natives I will use the wave 1. Therefore I think tthat I have to use the weight a_indpxus_xw since I am using adult main and proxy interview data.</p>
<p>To study the "health assymilation effect", i.e: wether immigrants´ health converge to native levels, I plan to run a regression where the dependent variable is the difference in health between wave 4 and wave 1. I will include as explanatory variables country of origin and other control variables for wave 1. Since in this model I will also use data from wave 4 (health status in wave 4) I am guessing that if I use the cross-section weight for wave 1, I won´t be controlling for attrition. Therefore, I am really confused about what weight I should use. I would really appreciate if you could give me any advice about it.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p> Support #329 (Closed): year resp left f-t education / year first jobhttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/3292014-12-09T07:58:54ZJanina Zeh
<p>Hello,<br />is there a variable which tells me the year the resp left f-t education or the year of the first job of the resp?<br />i've found one variable in w2 (bledendy), but not for the other years.<br />Kind regards,<br />Janina</p> Support #323 (Closed): which weight to usehttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/3232014-11-14T12:57:41ZVeronique Siegler
<p>I am currently working on a publication with a very tight schedule using data from the Understanding Society. The publication will use different measures at an individual level, sometimes extracted from the questionnaire, sometimes from the self-completed questionnaire. Despite reading the Understanding Society literature, I am still unsure on which weight to use in which situation and would be grateful if you could clarify the following:</p>
<p>- lets say I would like to know the proportion of people who feel they belong to their local area (wave 3, adult self-completed questionnaire). After reading the user guide, my understanding is that I should use the following weight: c_indscub_xw (for combined cross-sectional adult self-completion weight) . However, a colleague is advising me to use the following weight: c_indinub_xw (for combined cross-sectional adult main interview weight).</p>
<p>- lets say I would like to know the proportion of people who are male and female (wave 3, adult questionnaire) . After the user guide, my understanding is that I should the following weight: c_indinub_xw (for combined cross-sectional adult main interview weight).</p>
<p>- lets now say I would like to know the proportion of people who feel they belong to their local area by age (one variable from the adult self-completed questionnaire and one variable from the questionnaire, both wave 3). The user guide suggests that "for individual level analysis you may want to combine information from different questionnaire sources. In this situation please select the weight suitable for the lowest level according to the hierarchy below" - which suggests to me that in that case, I should use the following weight: c_indscub_xw (for combined cross-sectional adult self-completion weight). However, again my colleague is suggesting that I should use the following weight: c_indinub_xw (for combined cross-sectional adult main interview weight). </p>
<pre><code>I expect the same logic would apply to other previous waves? (waves 2, 1 and BHPS) and future wave (wave 4)</code></pre>
<p>I would be so grateful if you could advise me regarding that important matter.</p> Support #296 (Closed): zero value weights using c_indnsub_xwhttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/2962014-08-21T10:16:02ZEsther Curnockesther.curnock@glasgow.ac.uk
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I have been carrying out cross-sectional analyses using the combined wave 2 & 3 nurse assessment dataset 'xindresp_ns', along with data from the main survey of the corresponding wave. Having read through the user guide I have been using the survey weight c_indnsub_xw, as I believe this is the correct one for the type of analyses I'm doing. However there seems to be a significant proportion (7.8%) of the combined nurse assessment dataset that have a weighting value of zero when this is applied, and I would be grateful if you could explain this so I can decide whether to continue using the weighting.</p>
<p>The user guide seems to indicate that c_indnsub_xw is equal to the longitudinal weight c_indnsub_lw for households with no TSM, and that c_indnsub_lw itself is calculated using a method that includes multiplication by the nurse inclusion weight b_indnsub_li. I think it might be this inclusion weight that leads to the zero weights for c_indnsub_xw. If so, does this mean that individuals with a zero weight are basically those that had nurse data collected despite falling outside the inclusion criteria such an assessment?</p>
<p>To try to understand the problem, I also looked at the separate nurse assessment datasets for each wave ('b_indresp_ns' and 'c_indresp_ns'). It seems that applying the cross-sectional weight 'b_indnsus_xw' to the wave 2 dataset results in only 0.7% of cases with weights of zero, whereas applying 'c_indnsbh_xw' to wave 3 dataset has 10.8% with weighting values of zero. I wasn't sure why there should be such a big difference between the two, but in any case, as the proportion of the combined dataset derived from the wave 2 GPS sample is much greater than those coming from the wave 3 BHPS group this didn't really explain the issue of high zero weights in the combined dataset.</p>
<p>Many thanks,<br />Esther</p> Support #145 (Closed): working with two waves and weightshttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/1452013-05-08T18:07:11ZGiulia Montresorgmontr@essex.ac.uk
<p>Hello,<br />I want to use both waves 1-2 of US. In such case I think I need to keep only those individuals that responded in both waves.<br />I have to estimate the mean of life satisfaction for different groups of immigrants over the two years.<br />Therefore I need to use the longitudinal self-completion weight, b_indscus_lw.<br />I don't understand one thing:<br />The weight regards only observations of wave 2, therefore I need to keep only these observations? doing so I end up with a miserable number of individuals, and I cannot estimate the life satisfaction mean for the groups because the observations have zero weight. I attached my do file. I look forward to your kind reply, thanks</p> Support #142 (Closed): where is work experience in the BHPS?https://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/1422013-04-16T15:50:10ZJames Nieldjames_nield@outlook.com
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>how do I get BHPS data on individual level work experience as appears in studies such as Blundell et al 2005 "job changes, hours changes and the path of labour supply adjustment"?</p>
<p>Many thanks</p>
<p>James</p> Support #128 (Closed): working with England & Waleshttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/1282013-03-05T11:38:21ZCarolina Zuccotticarolina.zuccotti@eui.eu
<p>Hello, <br />I want to work with England and Wales only. Do I need to do any adjustments to the weights? <br />Or just drop the cases that do not belong to these countries?<br />Thanks,<br />Carolina</p> Support #106 (Closed): weightshttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/1062013-01-08T15:41:00ZCarolina Zuccotticarolina.zuccotti@eui.eu
<p>In the UKHLS course in Essex, we were told that in order to account for the complex survey design, we needed to use this formula:<br />svyset psuvar [pweight = weightvar], strata (tratavar)<br />However, the variables "psu" and "strata" are not in the currently released version of the data. Will these be available in the new release? And for both waves? <br />How should we use the above formula when the Waves are used together?<br />Thank you for your help!<br />Carolina</p> Support #64 (Closed): weighting youth datahttps://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/642012-06-13T13:26:41ZKareena McAloneykareena.mcaloney@york.ac.uk
<p>I have a quick query regarding the analysis of the UKHLS data - I have been running analysis using the sample weightings provided in the dataset, but have received a query over whether I also need to include variables to account for clustering, and stratification in the sample. Do the sample weightings provided account for these factors, or do they need to be taken account of separately? (I am running an analysis of the youth self-completion data.</p>