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Title:
Euro-Barometer 39.A: Health and Safety Issues, March - June, 1993
(Eurobarometer 39.A (39.0+1): Health and Safety at Work, March - June 1993)

Series: (Eurobarometer Survey Series)

Subject Categories:
International micro data - Major studies
General - Employment and labour
Political behaviour and attitudes - Politics
Accidents and injuries - Health
Social attitudes and behaviour - Society and culture

Depositor(s):
Zentralarchiv fuer Empirische Sozialforschung (Koeln)

Principal Investigator(s):
Reif, K.
Melich, A.

Sponsor(s):
Commission of the European Communities

Other Acknowledgements:
Interviewing and sampling were conducted by various organisations operating in the European Union. For further details see documentation.

Abstract:
The Eurobarometer (EB) survey series is a unique programme of cross-national and cross-temporal comparative social science research. Since the early seventies representative national samples in all European Union (EU) (formerly the European Community (EC)) member states have been simultaneously interviewed in the spring and autumn of each year. Starting with EB 34.1 (autumn 1990), separate supplementary surveys on special issues have been conducted under almost every EB number. The EB is designed to provide regular monitoring of public social and political attitudes in the EU through specific trend questions. More information about the series may be found on the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Data Archive for the Social Sciences (GESIS) Eurobarometer Survey Series web pages. GESIS was formed in 2007 when three independent institutes merged (Social Science Information Centre (IZ) in Bonn, Central Archive for Empirical Social Research in Cologne (ZA), and Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA) in Mannheim). Users should note that earlier EBs were deposited by ZA but are available now from GESIS.

Background
Work on European survey series began in early 1970, when the Commission of the European Community sponsored simultaneous surveys of the EC. These surveys were designed to measure public awareness of, and attitudes toward, the Common Market and other EC institutions, in complementary fashion. They also probed the goals given top priority for each respondent's nation. These concerns have remained a central part of the EC's research efforts - which were carried forward in the summer of 1971 with another six-nation survey that gave special attention to agricultural problems. The nine EC member countries were then surveyed again on the same topic areas in September 1973. After 1973, the surveys took on a somewhat broader scope in content as well as in geographical coverage, with measures of subjective satisfaction and the perceived quality of life becoming standard features of the EC public opinion surveys.

Over time, the member states of the EC/EU have increased in number, and the coverage of the EB surveys has widened accordingly. In 1974, nine countries were surveyed: France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and Luxembourg. Greece has been included since the autumn 1980 survey (EB 14) onwards, Portugal and Spain since autumn 1985 (EB 24), the former German Democratic Republic since autumn 1990 (EB 34), Finland since the spring of 1993 (EB 39), and Sweden and Austria since the autumn of 1994 (EB 42). Norway has been included in some surveys since 1991, from EB 36 onwards. In 2004, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the EU, and in 2007, Bulgaria and Romania (some of these countries participated in the Candidate Countries Eurobarometer survey series (see under GN 33343) before full accession). Canditate countries of Macedonia and Iceland have also been included in selected surveys. Some surveys are also conducted in Turkey, and in the Turkish Cypriot Community (Northern Cyprus).

The Eurobarometer public opinion surveys are conducted on behalf of and co-ordinated by the European Commission, DG Press and Communication - Opinion Polls Sector (European Commission Public Opinion Analysis). Special topic modules are carried out at the request of the responsible EU Directorate General.

This collection presents the attitudes of a subset of respondents who participated in Eurobarometer 39.0: European Community Policies and Family Life, March-April 1993 (held at the UK Data Archive under 3224 and at GESIS under 2346) and Eurobarometer 39.1: Energy Policies, Biotechnology, and Genetic Engineering, May-June 1993 (UK Data Archive under SN 3754 and GESIS under 2347). The focus of this collection is on health and safety in the workplace. Respondents were queried on their awareness of and involvement in health and safety issues at work, as well as where their knowledge of workplace health and safety was gained, ways to reduce the number of accidents at work, areas in which the European Community (European Union) (EC/EU) should do more to improve health and safety, and the degree of action the EU should take to guarantee health, safety, and hygiene in the workplace. Respondents were also asked about their knowledge of the European flag and the European Year logo, the main business activity where they worked, the number of hours they worked weekly, political party attachment, and trade union membership. All respondents were actively employed. Demographic characteristics included gender, age, marital status, religious affiliation and practice, subjective membership in social class, education, home ownership, family size, occupation, subjective size of community, and nationality. The dataset includes a number of constructed variables and indices such as opinion leadership, value orientation, typology of European attitudes, socio-professional status, European political party preference, commitment to the Common Market, and media use.

User shoudld note, this study merges data from Euro-Barometer 39.0 and Euro-Barometer 39.1, and includes supplementary weight variables and two key variables to permit linking with the original core data files.

Main Topics:
The special topic in this round was attitudes towards health and safety at work.

Coverage:
Dates of Fieldwork: 16 March 1993-05 June 1993
Country: Belgium; Denmark; France; Germany (October 1990-); Great Britain; Greece; Ireland; Italy; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Northern Ireland; Portugal; Spain
Spatial Units: Countries
Observation Units: Individuals

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:Cross-national; National
Population:Adults aged 15 and over living in the 12 countries of the European Union.

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Repeated cross-sectional study
Sampling Procedures: The sampling designs were either multi-stage national probability samples or national stratified quota samples.
Method of Data Collection: Face-to-face interview
Weighting: Weighting used. See documentation for details

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: Various

Access:
Access Conditions: The depositor has specified that registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. See terms and conditions for further information.
Available to UK residents or those registered at UK institutions of higher or further education only.
Availability: ESDS International, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: international@esds.ac.uk
Originating Archive: Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. Data Archive for the Social Sciences - Original Study Number: 2348
Please Note: A large selection of Eurobarometer Survey Series datasets, including standard Eurobarometers, Central and Eastern Eurobarometers and Candidate Countries Eurobarometers, are available to browse, analyse and download online via GESIS's ZACAT service. Access is free of charge and requires separate online registration, including agreement to terms and conditions of use of the data. The data are available for scientific purposes only.

Date of Release:
First Edition: 11 April 1997

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