New research on free breakfast in primary schools: impacts and challenges Monday, July 13 • 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM In-person at Nuffield Foundation, London - or hybrid www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/new... Presented by Professor Birgitta Rabe and Dr Angus Holford from the @iseressex.bsky.social.

New ESRA special interest group for those with a special interest in Biomedical Survey Research www.europeansurveyresearch.org/esra-special...

Rising natural gas and electricity prices: longitudinal evidence on physical health and socioeconomic vulnerability - using @usociety.bsky.social data www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/pub... By Seung Eun Cha, Sangwhee Lee, Benjamin D. Douglas, Carol D. Ryff.

@slate.com Slate Culture Gabfest! NOOOOOOOO!!!!

Genuinely disappointed to hear this - it was my one "drop whatever podcast I'm playing and listen to this first" show. Sunday late-afternoons (I'm not getting up to listen to this nonsense) will never be the same again. For a while.

Really interesting book club podcast with @herring1967.bsky.social talking to Jonathan Grant about “Reading the room” - the state of standup comedy in 21st C: gofasterstripe.com/cgi-bin/w.cg...

Registration now open – @usociety.bsky.social Biosocial Conference 2026: combining biological and social data. A one-day event bringing together researchers working with biological and social data. London, Broadway House, 15 October 2026. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2026/05...

A couple of excellent episodes of this podcast.

Autumn Budget 2025 supports ‘most vulnerable’. @resolutionfoundation.org uses @usociety.bsky.social to see if tax plans are progressive. Story: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/autum... Report: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/wp-content/u...

Barriers to opportunity for children and young people/ Long read: what research using @usociety.bsky.social tells us about children and young people’s futures. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2026/04...

Registration now open – @usociety.bsky.social Biosocial Conference 2026: combining biological and social data www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2026/05... The conference will take place in London at Broadway House on 15 October 2026.

New Working Paper from @profpeterlynn.bsky.social: Web-first or CAPI-first? How best to combine modes to recruit a probability-based general population survey sample. Web-first design resulted in higher response rates and a more representative sample. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/research/pub...

Controversial disqualification of @herring1967.bsky.social from Osman's "best celebrity quizzer" answer on @trientertainment.bsky.social today.

Barriers to Opportunity: @usociety.bsky.social Insights 2026 examines evidence on children’s development and young people’s life chances. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2026/02...

New briefing note: Growth with purpose. @usociety.bsky.social Policy and Partnerships Unit has published a new briefing. It sets out evidence-based policy ideas for driving growth and productivity while tackling labour market inequalities. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/growt...

BLOG: I will survive – can art make us healthy? ‘Art Cure’ book sets out evidence for longer, fuller lives that cites three papers in particular which examine different aspects of health – all of which used @usociety.bsky.social data. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2026/03...

The 4th annual NIMLAS plenary meeting is today! Looking forward to updates from our pilot project awardees and a keynote workshop from @jonburton.bsky.social on state-of-the art methods for obtaining consent to additional collection in longitudinal studies of aging. Details: nimlas.isr.umich.edu

Really looking forward to this. Pre-ordered for someone to give me for my birthday!

ISER in London – presenting new research on ethnic minority and immigrant pupils in Secondary Schools @iseressex.bsky.social Presenting of a range of new research to a selected group of campaigners, practitioners and policy makers at Broadway House in Westminster on Thursday 22 January

@slate.com - the Slate Plus Culture Gabfest seems to be only 2 seconds long this week. The Bonus podcast is there in full, and the Slate non-Plus version of the main show is there in full.

Short introductions to @usociety.bsky.social topics - www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/help/trainin... Linked data – 5 March Income, wealth and housing – 12 March Health and Biomarker data - 15 April Employment – 14 May Family, households and children – 21 May Linked data – 1 October

BLOG from @usociety.bsky.social The disappearance of the hump shape in ill-being by age - Lifetime happiness trend changes as youth mental health suffers www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2026/01... By @xiaoweixu.bsky.social @alexbryson.bsky.social @dannyblanchy.bsky.social

Levels of despair have surged among the young: '..for men under 25, despair more than doubled between 2009 and 2021. The percentage of young women in despair rose even more sharply, with most of the increase coming after 2016.'

Insights 2026: Children and young people’s futures www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/events/insig... Join @usociety.bsky.social for the launch of the 2026 Insights report at a one-day policy conference on building social infrastructure to support development and reduce inequalities.

An Infra4NextGen #webinar being held from 11am-12.30pm (CET) next Tuesday (18 November) will focus on promoting #research amongst non-academic audiences. The session will provide advice and practical ways to communicate findings to #policy makers and the general public.

Exploring the representativeness of web-only surveys of the general population - a new working paper from Survey Futures using analysis of Understanding Society. Read the paper: surveyfutures.net/wp-content/u...

Exploring youth transitions and outcomes through national datasets. Focusing on secondary, quantitative data - including Understanding Society. Join the @ncrm.ac.uk Data Resources Training Network webinar - 11 Nov, 12.00- 13.30. events.teams.microsoft.com/event/e66aa5...

Still the gold standard in survey research? Comparing face-to-face and self-completion data collection in a repeat cross-sectional general social survey in Great Britain New Working Paper from Survey Futures: surveyfutures.net/working-pape...

Professor Peter Lynn gives expert view to BBC Radio 4 on the issues at the Office for National Statistics with the Labour Force Survey www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/new...

Professor @annettejackle.bsky.social debates survey methods on BBC Radio 4 www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/10... The Radio 4 programme, More of Less, looked into the survey statistic by Resume Templates claiming 77 percent of young people brought a parent along to their job interviews.

PODCAST: Does pollution affect immigrant populations disproportionately? www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/podcasts/bre... Chris Coates looks at air pollution and in particular how common is it for immigrant populations to live in more polluted areas. With @ruettenauer.bsky.social and L’myah Sherae

BLOG: Young people’s aspirations rise with parents’ income, by Alexander O’Donnell & Alexandra Wake www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2025/10...

What? Hang on... Only Connect is on tonight???

Field an experiment or suggest questionnaire content for the next wave of the @usociety.bsky.social Innovation Panel. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/10... Two types of proposal can be submitted: New survey content and Experiments and methodological tests.

What? Hang on... there's no Only Connect on tonight???

"Do you resist change?" @jdickerson.bsky.social on @slate.com Plus Political Gabfest <applause>

BLOG: How do you build a survey that works? by Peter Lynn "In an article published today in the journal Nature: Human Behaviour, I attempt to tackle this question." doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Childcare more common in higher income families. Welsh Government uses @usociety.bsky.social to investigate childcare and effects on children www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/welsh...

The latest Pregnancy and Early Childhood data from @usociety.bsky.social are now available from the UK Data Service. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/09... Understanding Society collects information on social, economic and behavioural factors, and information on babies/children

New User Guide for @usociety.bsky.social with information on the geographical identifiers and geographical classifications datasets available in Understanding Society and provides information on how they can be used. www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentatio...

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...