Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey was launched by ScotCen Social Research (formerly the Scottish Centre for Social Research) in 1999, following the advent of devolution. Based on annual rounds of interviews of between 1,200 to 1,500 people drawn using probability sampling (based on a stratified, clustered sample), it aims to facilitate the study of public opinion and inform the development of public policy in Scotland, similar to the British Social Attitudes (BSA) series (held at the Archive under GN 33168). The SSA survey has been conducted annually each year since 1999, with the exception of 2008. The survey has a modular structure. In any one year it typically contains three to five modules, each containing 40 questions. Funding for its first two years came from the Economic and Social Research Council, while from 2001 onwards different bodies have funded individual modules each year. These bodies have included the Economic and Social Research Council, the Scottish Government and various charitable and grant awarding bodies, such as the Nuffield Foundation and Leverhulme Trust. Further information on the SSA and links to publications may be found on the ScotCen Social Research Scottish Social Attitudes webpages.

The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, 2017 fieldwork ran between July 2017 and February 2018. An advance letter was sent to all sampled addresses and followed up by a personal visit from a ScotCen interviewer. Interviewers were required to make a minimum of 6 calls at different times of the day (including at least one evening and one weekend call) in order to try and contact respondents.Interviews were conducted using face-to-face computer-assisted interviewing (a process which involves the use of a laptop computer, with questions appearing on screen and interviewers directly entering respondents’ answers into the computer). All respondents were asked to fill in a self-completion questionnaire using the interviewer's laptop. If the respondent preferred, the questions could be read out by the interviewer.

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The 2017 SSA contained modules on: attitudes to government, funded by Scottish Government attitudes to dementia, funded by the Life Changes Trust attitudes to the European Union, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council attitudes to personal data, funded by Scottish Government attitudes to young people, funded by Scottish Government.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Face-to-face interview

Self-completion