21 April 2009 – Publication of DWP research report 574: Cognitive testing: British social attitudes to child poverty questions

Research published on 21st April 2009 by the Department for Work and Pensions (Report 574) explores the effectiveness of existing survey questions on poverty that are used in the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS). It further tests a new set of questions on public attitudes to child poverty.

Cognitive interviewing methods were used to test both sets of questions.  Cognitive interviewing is a qualitative technique and so samples used are purposive and designed to represent the diversity of views relevant to the questions, rather than being statistically representative.

The main findings are:

• Respondents often gave the same answers to questions about poverty even though their conceptions varied significantly. These differences in conception were revealed using the think aloud technique and interviewer probing.
• Respondents had wide ranging views about the term poverty. Some viewed poverty in absolute terms i.e. where basic needs such as food or shelter are not met. Others viewed poverty as relative, where people lack items that many of us take for granted. This was further complicated by the fact that some respondents put poverty in an international context e.g. Africa and others talked about times gone by i.e. pre 1950’s.
• The idea of not being able to afford something was an important aspect of poverty for respondents, though this was mediated by individual volition. For example, if people lack items through choice (prioritising) or through mismanagement of funds then they were not considered to be in poverty.
• Vignettes were seen as the most successful way of getting respondents to visualise and talk about child poverty. This method revealed the differences in people’s attitudes which had been hidden in other types of questions, where individual differences in the conception of poverty were not explored. 
• There was little or no awareness of the Government targets in relation to child poverty.

The cognitive interviewing method draws on ideas from cognitive psychology to understand how respondents go about answering questions. The technique focuses on four main processes:

• Understanding and interpretation of the question
• Ability to recall information needed to answer the questions
• Judgments involved in deciding on an answer
• Use of response categories to answer the question

Respondents are either asked to think aloud whilst answering questions or answer the question followed by a series of probe questions. This technique enables us to identify problems with survey questions which would not be revealed in a standard field pilot and to make changes to overcome the problems.

Notes to Editors

This report (Report 574) explores the effectiveness of existing survey questions on poverty in BSAS and tests a new set of questions on public attitudes to child poverty. The report was produced by the independent research organisation, the National Centre for Social Research.

Research Report 574 – Cognitive Testing: British Social Attitudes to Child Poverty Questions is published on 21st April 2009. The report is available on the DWP website and hard copies can be obtained from Paul Noakes, Caxton House, 6-12 Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NA.

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