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A step-by-step ESDS Qualidata study guide to:
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Families, Social Mobility and Ageing, an Intergenerational
Approach, 1900-1988
Principal Investigators: Thompson, P., Newby, H.
Study Number: 4938
"To be honest, most of my friends don’t have fathers. Either their parents are
divorced or their fathers are dead."
"I determined that my life would be completely different…I was gonna be as good
a mother as possible."
"I wasn't supposed to be ambitious for myself. I was supposed to spend my life
revolved around my husband and me family."
(Interview extracts)
Introduction
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Colloquially known as '100 families', this ambitious study sought to trace
connections between family life and social mobility. It did so through 170
in-depth life story interviews spread across three generations of family life.
The research team, headed by Paul Thompson and Harold Newby at the University of
Essex, devised an interview schedule that asked participants extensive
questions relating to their own and their family's education, politics, family
trees, marriage and relationships, housing, parents' work, and leisure. The
interviews average 54 pages in length and were conducted during the mid-1980s.
A generation of men and women aged between 30 and 55 and married with children
participated in the study. This 87 strong cohort of informants were located
amongst parliamentary constituencies in Scotland, London, north-west, west and
south-east England and the Midlands.
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Method
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The fieldwork strategy selected a 'middle generation' of married men and women
with children. These 'middle generation' informants were initially drawn from a
subsample of informants interviewed for an ESRC project and had agreed to be
re-interviewed. They were located in 200 polling districts in 35 parliamentary
constituencies in Scotland, London, north-west, west and south-east England and
the Midlands. Later on, further polling districts were added and a stratified
occupational quota was introduced to ensure an appropriate class balance.
The collection consists of interviews with 170 informants. Of these, 87 were
middle generation, 42 younger, and 41 were older generation informants. The
families included 26 represented by a lone participant and 11 where all three
generations were interviewed.
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Archive resources
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The interview transcripts have been fully digitised and it is now
possible to carry out keyword searches on these transcripts through different
search filters, such as: interviewee's gender, date of birth, geographical
region and/or occupational class. Further details can be found online in the
'search interview transcripts' section.
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Teaching resource
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Interview extracts from the study have been used in the ESDS teaching resource.
The resource provides instructors and students with materials designed to
assist in teaching qualitative interviewing. This study has been used as an
example of the life story approach to interviewing. Guidance is provided on how
it can be used in teaching activities:
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User documentation
ESDS user documentation for Families, Social Mobility and Ageing, and
Intergenerational Approach, 1900-1988 can be downloaded in the form of a user
guide in PDF format from the UK Data Archive catalogue record page. It covers an overview
of the study currently held by ESDS Qualidata.
Study description and documentation:
More detailed information about the project, including background information,
is available from the ESDS Qualidata Online pages:
Publications and other resources
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The main published outcomes arising from this study are:
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Thompson, P.R., Itzen, C. and Abendstern, M. (1990) I don't feel old: later life
then and now, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0-19820-147-8.
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Thompson, P.R. (1990) 'I don't feel old: subjective ageing and the search for
meaning in later life', paper presented at the World Congress of Sociology,
Madrid, July 1990.
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Thompson, P.R. (1992) 'I don't feel old: subjective ageing and the search for
meaning in later life', Ageing and Society, 12(2).
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Thompson, P.R. (1993) 'Family myth, models, and denials in the shaping of
individual lifepaths', in P.R. Thompson and D. Bertaux (eds.) Between generations,
London: Oxford University Press.
There have also been many secondary users of the study. Many of the publications
arising from re-use can be found at:
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www.esds.ac.uk help@esds.ac.uk
Q4938 - Families, Social Mobility and Ageing, an Intergenerational Approach,
1900-1988
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