New data from @usociety.bsky.social Innovation Panel is now available. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/09... What new experiments are now available? - Youth survey invite mailing - Consent decision process - Identification of informal caregiving - Labour market expectations ...

Our podcast is back from its summer break! Our new episode has Adelina Gschwandtner @kent.ac.uk and Ashleigh Brown from RSPCA discussing pets and life satisfaction, and how it’s possible to work out a monetary value for the benefits we get from cats and dogs

New blog: Tak Wing Chan @ioe.bsky.social with a detailed look at immigration and social cohesion. Pundits and some research tell us that diversity undermines trust and solidarity, but can we accept findings which don’t take poverty and inequality into account?

New case study! Charity @pbe.co.uk used our data to show that the £28 billion annual bill for disability benefits creates £42bn in positive effects

Online course: Survey Measurement of Health: Implications for Social Science Research A short online training course on the implications of survey measurement of health for future social science research online on 22 and 23 September. www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/new...

Join the Understanding Society user support team for lunch-time learning on some of the key topic areas covered by @usociety.bsky.social. The free, one-hour online courses are designed for both new and experienced users of Understanding Society. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/09...

PODCAST from @usociety.bsky.social about pets! Can we put a monetary value on what pets bring to our lives? Interviews with Adelina Gschwandtner (Kent) and Ashleigh Brown (RSPCA) www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/podcasts/pet...

Topic webinars One-hour, lunch time webinars on key topics in @usociety.bsky.social www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/help/trainin... Linked data – 2 October Employment – 9 October Family, households & children – 16 October Income, wealth & housing – 23 October Ethnicity & immigration – 30 October

Reviewing our questions on ethnicity and immigration. Let us know your views on this important part of the @usociety.bsky.social survey. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/06...

Two year postdoc at @universityofessex.bsky.social to work with my amazing colleague (see below) on her ERC project "Applied stereotypes, social networks and self-fulfilling prophecies: How stereotypes reinforce social inequalities" Closing date 28.09.2025 vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

Quality of Expenditure Data Collected With a Mobile Receipt Scanning App in a Probability Household Panel - by Alexander Wenz, @annettejackle.bsky.social @jonburton.bsky.social Mick P. Couper & Brendan Read. doi.org/10.18148/srm...

History of the World in 47 Borders by @jonnelledge.bsky.social whilst crossing the Canadian/Alaskan border

📢 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝙎𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙮 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙙𝙨 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄! The latest issue (Vol. 19, No. 2) of 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘺 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘥𝘴 is here – featuring new research on survey design, data quality, sampling, nonresponse, & more. See the issue: 🔗 ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/issue/vi... #SurveyResearch #SurveyMethods #ESRA

We're reviewing our questions on ethnicity and immigration. If you'd like to give us feedback on the questions we ask and the variables you use for your research there's information on how to take part in the review on our website: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/06...

Very happy to anounce that our latest piece has been published in SM&R ✨️ Spoiler: Only ~1/3 of respondents make a thorough consequentialist decision when asked for consent!

Young adults in coastal areas face ‘double whammy of poor mental health’ CASE STUDY from @usociety.bsky.social Research shows lower self-rated mental health and a higher likelihood of undiagnosed conditions. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/young...

@herring1967.bsky.social Tideland.

Data from @usociety.bsky.social helps genetic analysis of rare neurodevelopmental conditions. BLOG from @hilarycmartin.bsky.social‬ www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2025/07...

Our latest blog: @hilarycmartin.bsky.social on how data from Understanding Society and others played a part in @sangerinstitute.bsky.social research into rare neurodevelopmental conditions

Great #ESRA25 - so much fun to see so many familiar faces, hear all this inspiring research, and cycle the bike paths of beautiful Utrecht!

Getting consent to survey in new ways: evidence from experiments about questions by text message in the @usociety.bsky.social Innovation Panel Jim Vine, @annettejackle.bsky.social, @jonburton.bsky.social, Mick P. Couper www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/research/pub...

How Do Survey Respondents Decide Whether to Consent to Data Linkage? @jonburton.bsky.social, Mick P. Couper, Thomas F. Crossley, @annettejackle.bsky.social & @sawalzenbach.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Our 2024 Annual Report is now available. It was another busy year for UKHLS... ✅4143 researchers registered to use a dataset ✅3669 downloads for the main survey ✅4581 publications have now used UKHLS data ✅624 people took a training course with us www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/06...

How Different Mixed-Mode Data Collection Approaches Impact Response Rates and Provision of Biomeasure Samples - paper using @usociety.bsky.social, by Tarek Al Baghal, @jonburton.bsky.social, Thomas F Crossley, Michaela Benzeval, & Meena Kumari. doi.org/10.1093/poq/...

Survey weights: an explainer. BLOG from @usociety.bsky.social www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2025/06... What survey weights do is balance the influence of survey answers from members of different subgroups in analyses of the data so they reflect the population distribution of subgroups...

Selectivity of digital trace data: the case of the UK COVID-19 contact tracing apps - working paper at @usociety.bsky.social by Jim Vine, @jonburton.bsky.social Mick P. Couper, @annettejackle.bsky.social & Daniel Horn www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/research/pub...

This is great - would recommend subbing: steviemartin.substack.com/p/afternoon-...

Case Study from @usociety.bsky.social UK underperforms in employment for ill and disabled New case study says employment gap is the highest of 15 countries studied. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/emplo...

Reviewing our questions on ethnicity and immigration. Let us know your views on this important part of the @usociety.bsky.social survey. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/06...

Case Study from @usociety.bsky.social Automatic pension enrolment – little effect on savings Policy evaluation case study shows Nest pension does not encourage other savings www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/autom...

Upcoming training events for @usociety.bsky.social www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/events/ Introduction to Understanding Society Jun 9th - 10th Using UKHLS child and youth data Jun 11th Geographical data linkage Jun 12th Introduction to linear panel data methods Jun 19th

New BLOG from @usociety.bsky.social - The minimum wage and career progress, by Silvia Avram If the minimum wage goes up, do people’s chances of moving to a better-paid job go down? www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2025/05...

New editions of linked geographical data for @usociety.bsky.social Waves 1-14 Census 2021 data are now available, as are Acorn Wellbeing data. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/05... These include Scottish Data Zones and Intermediate Zones, so all four countries of the UK are now covered.

New podcast from @usociety.bsky.social - Families and benefit cuts: What are the effects on stress, for parents and teenagers? In this episode, host Chris Coates asks how families are affected by benefit cuts and fluctuating incomes. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/podcasts/fam...

New Case Study using @usociety.bsky.social Universal Credit led to poor mental health: Research calculates extra 63,000 cases of psychological distress www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/unive... A new policy evaluation case study focuses on research from the University of Liverpool.

BLOG from @usociety.bsky.social. Jim Vine on "Introducing data description chapters - Making new data visible in Working Papers". Another new development in the Innovation Panel 16 working paper is the introduction of data description chapters. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2025/05...

Are interviewer administered follow-ups of web non-respondents still needed to maximise respondent dataset quality? Evidence using @usociety.bsky.social: the UK Household Longitudinal Study

New report from Survey Futures: Targeted procedures for tackling survey non-response: Evidence Review by Viktor Sladka and Peter Lynn. surveyfutures.net/wp-content/u...

Understanding Society Scientific Conference 2025 - registration now open! Join us 1-3 July at the University of Essex to hear the latest research using longitudinal household panel studies. Find the programme and book your place: understandingsocietyconference.co.uk

Interested in how people and societies change? Join us at @essexsummerschool.bsky.social for a course on longitudinal data analysis. We’ll cover how to model change, understand causal relationships and draw insights from complex data @ncrm.ac.uk @closer-uk.bsky.social @usociety.bsky.social

BLOG: @usociety.bsky.social No progress: breaking the cycle of long-term insecure work By @rebeccaflorisson.bsky.social For millions of workers in the UK, employment in the 21st century is characterised by insecurity. For too many workers, this is not a short-term issue.

Hi all, The @usociety.bsky.social Scientific Conference registration is open! Join us on the 1-3 July for three days of longitudinal and household panel research. understandingsocietyconference.co.uk

If you're not reading and following @5teviem.bsky.social and her Substack steviemartin.substack.com then what are you even doing?

Latest version of the open-source tax-benefit microsimulation model for the UK by @cempaessex.bsky.social is now available, with model updated to reflect policy changes announced in the Government’s Spring Statement and the OBR March Fiscal Outlook. www.microsimulation.ac.uk/about/news/2...

We're looking for new members to join our Policy and Partnerships Forum - the advisory group that helps Understanding Society develop work in the policy, non-profit and commercial sectors. There's more information on our website: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/03...

Raj Patel, @usociety.bsky.social Associate Director, Policy and Partnerships, has given evidence to the House of Lords Home-based Working Committee’s inquiry into remote and hybrid working in the UK. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/assoc...

Children in overcrowded households A new briefing note uses @usociety.bsky.social data on children and housing to explore trends in overcrowding and how this impacts on children. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/03...

Thank you to @usociety.bsky.social for the opportunity to share and discuss our recent work on gender differences in the impact of the pandemic on health behaviours and the protective effect of these behaviours on mental health. The paper can be accessed here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

CASE STUDY: DWP data on parental conflict uses @usociety.bsky.social New instalment of two-yearly Parental Conflict Indicator dataset examines relationship distress and child contact www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/dwp-p...

Coming up @usociety.bsky.social - Short Introductions to Key Topic Areas: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/help/trainin... Income, wealth & housing – 12 March Employment – 19 March Family, households & children – 26 March