Timeframe
2013–
COMPASS staff
Gerard Cotterell
Barry Milne
Martin von Randow
Lara Greaves
Komathi Kolandai
COMPASS students
Clark Tipene
Irene Wu
Rebecca Grimwood
David Campbell
Liam Nelson
Vinh-An Nguyen
Shu Wang
Ryan Blackmore
Collaborators
University of Auckland
Peter Boxall
Joseph Bulbulia
Jennifer Curtin
Louise Humpage
Ngaire Kerse
Andrew Sporle
Victoria University of Wellington
Kate McMillan
Griffith University
Cosmo Howard
Description
The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuing annual programme of collaboration among around 45 countries on surveys covering topics important for social science research. It brings together pre-existing social science projects and coordinates research goals, adding a cross-national, cross-cultural perspective to the individual national studies.
ISSP researchers especially concentrate on developing questions that are meaningful and relevant to all countries and can be expressed in an equivalent manner in all relevant languages.
The ISSP began in 1985 and Professor Phil Gendall at Massey University initiated New Zealand’s participation in 1991. He retired in 2010 with no immediate successor; COMPASS took on responsibility for the ISSP survey for New Zealand in 2013 and has run it for each yearly module since that time, becoming an official member of the ISSP in 2016. We have branded the survey as the Social Attitudes Survey New Zealand (SASNZ) for an audience unfamiliar with the ISSP. The datasets and metadata for all of the ISSP surveys conducted for New Zealand can be downloaded from COMPASS’s space within the University of Auckland’s Figshare repository: https://auckland.figshare.com/compass. We have also created R Shiny apps summarising responses to the survey questions in each year, including breakdowns by sex and age group. The surveys run through Massey University can be examined at https://compassnz.shinyapps.io/ISSP2010-1991. Those that we have run at COMPASS have separate pages as described below.
ISSP2023 National Identity & Citizenship
We conducted the 2023 module in November and December 2023. This survey combined two topics that had previously been studied together, to make way for the new Digital Societies topic entering the cycle in 2024.
ISSP2022 Family & Changing Gender Roles
We conducted the 2022 edition of the survey early in 2023, once again adding in some questions on the effects of COVID-19 for our own interests. This was the first time that the gender roles topic had been studied as part of the ISSP in New Zealand since 2002 as 2012 was one of the years in which we did not have a survey conducted.
ISSP2021 Health & Healthcare
We conducted the 2021 edition of the survey at the start of 2022 after the extended COVID-19 lockdown in Auckland, August–December 2021. In fact, we had to change some of the COVID-related content in the questionnaire, which had focused on vaccine hesitancy, a concept that had been mainly outmoded by early 2022. This was the first time that health & healthcare was examined as part of the ISSP in New Zealand, as it was initially added in 2011, between Phil Gendall’s tenure with the ISSP and COMPASS’s.
ISSP2020 Environment
We conducted the 2020 environment module during 2021, and added in a number of questions around the observed impacts of COVID-19. The environment was previously studied in New Zealand as part of the ISSP in 2010, 2000, and 1993.
ISSP2019 Social Inequalities
We conducted the 2019 ISSP module on social inequalities during 2020, which of course came with additional challenges, including fitting survey activities around COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. The situation did also make the subject matter all the more topical. Social inequalities were previously examined in New Zealand as part of the ISSP in 2009, 1999, and 1992.
ISSP2018 Religion
We ran the 2018 religion module in 2018, in collaboration with Joseph Bulbulia from the University’s School of Theology. He also made possible a follow-up survey in 2019, wherein the respondents from 2018 were re-contacted and asked to complete the questionnaire again. The aim was to examine potential changes in attitudes towards different religions, especially as the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings occurred between these two runs. Religion was previously covered in New Zealand as part of the ISSP in 2008, 1998, and 1991 – the first time the ISSP was run in the country.
ISSP2017 Social Networks
We ran the 2017 social networks module in 2017. The topic focuses on friends and support groups, rather than what we think of as social networks in the fully online era. This survey was funded by the Jeanette Crossley Foundation as part of COMPASS’s work on Loneliness Across the Life-Course. The topic has not been on the usual 10-year cycle of the ISSP and was only previously run in New Zealand in 2001.
ISSP2016 Role of Government
We ran the 2016 survey in 2016, adding in questions topical to the New Zealand context, including a follow-up on opinions about the referendum to change the country’s flag and thoughts on other things that could feasibly go to a referendum. The role of government was previously studied in New Zealand as part of the ISSP in 2006 and 1996.
ISSP2015 Work Orientations
We ran the 2015 survey during 2015 in a single questionnaire combined with the 2014 module, as we did not manage to run that survey in its calendar year. For this work orientations module we received funding support from Peter Boxall at the University’s Business School. He also had a PhD student examining the results and comparing them as best possible to when work orientations was previously run in New Zealand as part of the ISSP, in 2005 and 1997.
ISSP2014 Citizenship
We ran the 2014 survey during 2015 in a single questionnaire combined with the 2015 module. For this citizenship module we received funding support from the New Zealand European Union Centres Network. We also added a question to garner opinions on the then recent referendum to change the country’s flag. Citizenship was previously studied in New Zealand as part of the ISSP in 2004. Prior to that only National Identity had been on the roster.
ISSP2013 National Identity
We ran the 2013 national identity module in 2013. This was the first ISSP survey we ran as COMPASS, building on our experiences running the New Zealand Election Study in 2011. National identity was previously examined in New Zealand as part of the ISSP in 2003 and 1995.
ISSP1991 – ISSP2010 The Massey Years
Professor Phil Gendall at Massey University ran the ISSP surveys for New Zealand each year from 1991 to 2010, an impressive undertaking. After he retired and COMPASS took up the mantle in 2013, we added all of his data sets to our data archive, at the time the New Zealand Social Science Data Service (NZSSDS), and then to the University’s Figshare repository where our combined series remain at https://auckland.figshare.com/compass.