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Title:
Small Fortunes : National Survey of the Lifestyles and Living Standards of Children, 1995

Subject Categories:
Consumer behaviour - Economics
Family life and marriage - Social stratification and groupings
Child development and child rearing - Social stratification and groupings

Depositor(s):
Middleton, S., Loughborough University. Centre for Research in Social Policy

Principal Investigator(s):
Middleton, S., Loughborough University. Centre for Research in Social Policy
Ashworth, K., Loughborough University. Centre for Research in Social Policy

Data Collector(s):
Research Services Limited

Sponsor(s):
Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Other Acknowledgements:
Alan Marsh of the Policy Studies Institute provided the sample for children in two-parent families.
The Department of Social Security provided the sample for children in one-parent families.
Peter Lynn, independent statistical consultant, assisted with the weighting strategy.

Abstract:
The Small Fortunes Survey is the first ever nationally representative survey of the lifestyles and living standards of British children. Taking the child as the unit of analysis, its main aims were :
to establish household expenditure on children and to investigate variation by income, age and gender of child and by family size and status;
to estimate certain of the indirect costs imposed by child rearing;
to determine the nature and extent of extra household support for children;
to specify and compare, the minimum direct costs of children according to budget standard, consensual, self-assessment and behavioural definitions;
to examine the nature and degree of poverty in childhood according to those definitions given above;
to investigate the 'economics of parenting': the extent to which children's aspirations are met at the expense of the living standards of parents; parent/child interactions on finance; parents' economic aspirations for their children;
to explore childhood living standards from children's own perspectives, investigating their experience of money and its management; knowledge and understanding of the family's financial circumstances in the context of the immediate neighbourhood and wider society.
Main Topics:
The dataset includes the following files :
'adult1' : data from the first interview with the main carer of the child, covering household composition, occupation of adults in household, childcare for selected child, baby-sitting for selected child, housing tenure and size, attitudes to parenting, parental sacrifice, parental aspirations, index of childhood deprivation, access to facilities, parent-child interactions on finance and grouped household income.
'adult2' : data from second interview with main carer of the child, including educational background of adults in family, household ownership of consumer durables, household income, opportunity costs for main carer associated with the selected child, index of adult deprivation, household savings, housing costs, insurance, other household bills, car ownership and cost, household debts, loans and credit, parent assessed cost of all children in household, parent-assessed measures of deprivation, family relationships and health.
'babgear' : data from self-completion inventory of equipment, clothes and toys for selected child under two years old.
'clthposs' : data from self-completion inventory of equipment, clothes and toys for selected child over two years old.
'prescexp' : data from self-completion diary of expenditure on food, activities and other purchases for selected child not in full-time school.
'schexp' : data from self-completion diary of expenditure on food, school activities, out-of-school activities, phone calls, other purchases and pocket money for selected child in full-time school.
'selfcomp' : data from self-completion questionnaire on outings and holidays, birthdays, savings and earnings for selected child.
'xmas' : data from self-completion questionnaire on Christmas expenditure for selected child.
'child' : data from interview with selected child, covering pocket money, earnings from employment, items child aspires to own, attitudes to area, knowledge of family income and expenditure, child/parent interactions on finance, career aspirations.

Coverage:
Dates of Fieldwork: February 1995-June 1995
Country: Great Britain
Spatial Units: No information recorded
Observation Units: Families/households
Kind of Data: Numeric data; Individual (micro) level

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:National
Population:Children aged between 0 and 17 years (one per household sampled) and their adult carers, living in households in 49 postcode districts in Great Britain during February to June 1995.

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Cross-sectional (one-time) study
Sampling Procedures: Multi-stage stratified random sample
full details of sampling procedure may be found in the codebook
Number of Units: (A) 1906 (target) 1239 (obtained) Weighted sample size was 10487
Method of Data Collection: Face-to-face interview; Self-completion; Diaries; CAPI was used for the interviews

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

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.
Availability: ESDS Access and Preservation, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: help@esds.ac.uk

Date of Release:
First Edition: 4 March 1999

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