Round 10 core questionnaire changes

A new European Social Survey (ESS) report summarises changes that have been made to our core questionnaire ahead of Round 10 (2020/21).

The ESS core questionnaire – including more than 100 questions that are asked in every round of our survey – was reviewed ahead of this latest round.

The purpose of the review was ‘to ensure that the ESS core questionnaire continues to accurately reflect the most pertinent social, political and demographic cleavages across Europe’.

Representatives of the Core Scientific Team (CST) and members of the ESS Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) formed a Core Review Team in 2018 to assess core questions item by item.

An initial evidence gathering exercise included feedback from subject experts involved in the creation of the original core questionnaire items.

Analysis produced by the University of Ljubljana showing how frequently different items were used in academic publications was also considered.

Questions that had potential for improvement were initially identified, and a small number of new items were chosen to be considered for inclusion.

A short list of questions to be amended, removed or added was then reviewed by the CST, the SAB, the ESS Methodological Advisory Board (MAB) and National Coordinators.

Additionally, ESS data users were asked for their feedback in September 2019 via an online consultation.

The proposed changes were tested through Omnibus Surveys (May-June 2019) in Bulgaria, Italy and the United Kingdom; Cognitive interviews (June 2019) in Finland, France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom; and a Pilot Survey (November-December 2019) in Austria and the United Kingdom.

The results of these pretesting phases were used by the Core Review Team to draft a final list of the proposed changes. This was reviewed by the CST in January 2020 to approve the final amendments, cuts and additions to the core questionnaire.

The report – ESS Round 10 Core Questionnaire Review: Summary of changes – includes details of the changes implemented, the rationale behind the decisions and evidence from pre-testing and the consultation of data users.