Cohort 1992

Summary

The purpose of the comprehensive data surveys is to enable both longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys of large and representative student selections. The follow-up survey of this current sample began in the spring of 2003 when the students were in the 3^rd grade of compulsory school. Until 5^th grade only school administration data was collected through Statistics Sweden. In the spring of 2008, when the majority of the students attended 6^th grade, the school administrative information was supplemented with data obtained directly from students, guardians and the teachers concerned.

The survey population consists of the pupils who attended 3^rd grade of compulsory school in the spring term of 2003. The population is, by definition delimited with regard to grade affiliation, which means that it includes pupils with different years of birth. The majority, or just over 95 per cent, were born in 1992. The sample includes 10153 students, of which 9992 are included in this survey. The number of students who answered all or parts of the questionnaire was 8232, the parent questionnaire 7672 and the teacher questionnaire 860. The proportion who answered the student questionnaire is 82 percent, the parent questionnaire 77 percent and the teacher questionnaire 59 per cent.

The reports present the results from the various surveys through descriptive tables and diagrams. Several of the questions contain sub-questions that may represent indicators of more elusive phenomena. These scored sub-questions may form the basis for scales, which provide a more reliable means of measuring a phenomenon than individual questions can. The reliability of the scales has been estimated using Cronbach's alpha and overall, all scales have an acceptable reliability.

The results from the data collection are described in three reports, one for each questionnaire, see under the heading reports.

In the spring of 2008, when the majority of the students attended 9^th grade, a questionnaire was given in which questions were asked about their school and life situation. The questionnaire was sent home to the students and a total of 5920 students responded, which was 58 percent of the original sample.

The next questionnaire was given in the spring of 2012 when the majority of the cohort had left high school. Due to logistical reasons, the questionnaire could not be given as planned during the last year of upper secondary school but was conducted the following year. This probably contributed to very low participation. The questionnaire was sent home to the students and a total of 1938 students answered, which was 19 percent of the sample.

In some reports, the results from some of the surveys are reported through descriptive tables and diagrams. Several of the questions contain sub-questions that may represent indicators of more elusive phenomena. These scored sub-questions may form the basis for scales, which provide a more reliable means of measuring a phenomenon than individual questions can do. The reliability of the scales has been estimated using Cronbach's alpha and in general all scales show an acceptable reliability, see under the heading reports.

Basic information

Basic information

Register data that Statistics Sweden collects in connection with the selection of classes. These mainly consist of:

• year of birth
• gender
• migration background
• educational background
• socio-economic data

School administrative data

The school administrative data have been obtained from 3^rd grade onwards throughout the compulsory school period. A form is sent to the school the student attends and the school fills in information for each student included in the survey. Information is collected in 3^rd grade, initially sampling entire classes, but as students move over time, the form is sent to a growing number of schools, which are requested to complete information for individual students. This is done so that the students who were included from the beginning can be followed over the years up to adulthood. This information consists of:

• municipality
• school
• school grade
• age integrated or age diverse class
• mother tongue
• Swedish for immigrants
• date when moving to another school
• new municipality
• new school
• grades when given
• national tests in Swedish, English and mathematics from 9^th grade

The collection in 6^th grade

The final version of the student survey and the various cover letters were sent by the project staff to Statistics Sweden in mid-January 2005, who printed and distributed the survey. The information letter to the principal and the teachers concerned was sent in week 4. A letter, written by the National Agency for Education to the principal, about the national significance of the survey, was also included in the information material. The student questionnaire was then sent to the principal during week 10. The consignment contained additional information about the survey and instructions, both to the principal and to the teacher. A reminder with a new questionnaire was sent to the Rector in week 17. This was followed by two telephone reminders to the Rector, in week 19 and week 22. The collection was completed in June 2005, after which the bound questionnaire responses were read by Statistics Sweden and sent to the University of Gothenburg in unidentifiable condition.

More about the implementation can be read in the Technical Report Statistics Sweden compiled in connection with the submission of data, see under the heading reports.

The sample includes 10147 individuals in this survey. The number of students who answered all or parts of the questionnaire is 8232, the parent questionnaire 7672 and the teacher questionnaire 860. The proportion who answered the student questionnaire is 82 percent, the parent questionnaire 77 percent and the teacher questionnaire 58 percent.

The reports present the results from the various surveys through descriptive tables and diagrams. Several of the questions contain sub-questions that may represent indicators of more elusive phenomena. These scored sub-questions may form the basis for scales, which provide a more reliable means of measuring a phenomenon than individual questions can do. The reliability of the scales has been estimated using Cronbach's alpha and overall, all scales have an acceptable reliability.

The results from the data collection are described in three reports, one for each questionnaire, see under the heading reports.

Cognitive tests

The Cognitive tests are intelligence tests containing tasks of a verbal, inductive and spatial nature. These have been given at each collection in 6^th grade and began with the evaluation in 1961. The three subtests and how they were developed are described in Svensson, A. (1964) (pdf downloadable from GUPEA, in Swedish).

As of the 2005 evaluation, there is another newly constructed verbal test.

• Antonyms: To choose the opposite of a particular keyword among four options
• Sheet metal folding: To work out which of the four figures you get, if you fold a pictured “sheet metal piece”
• Number series: To continue a number series, where six numbers are given, with two more numbers
• Synonyms: To enter the synonym for a particular keyword among four options

More about the cognitive tests can be read in:

Relative achievement: school performance in relation to intelligence, sex and home environment (pdf downloadable from GUPEA)

Questionnaire for students

The questionnaire includes 20 questions in addition to the cognitive tests. Most of the questions are formulated as main questions with a number of sub-questions with four or five answer alternatives. By constructing scales and using the sub-questions as indicators, it is possible to access phenomena that are difficult to measure. The questions concern the following areas.

• Six questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) concern students' general perception of their ability to acquire knowledge and skills in nine different areas of knowledge and their general interest in and how important it is for them to learn in these areas. The questions also concern the students' perception of their ability to cope with certain specific tasks in Swedish, English and mathematics.
• Four questions (7, 8, 9 and 15) concern a sense of context or how students feel in different learning and social contexts in school and their general school well-being.
• One question (10) concerns the students' motivation to learn in school or how often they try to achieve a number of specific goals with their learning.
• One question (11) concerns how often certain forms of work occur in the classroom.
• Three questions (12, 13 and 14) concern the existence of and use of time for homework or assignments, as well as help with homework at home.
• Two questions (16 and 17) concern the parents' involvement in the child's school situation and future educational plans.
• Three questions (18, 19 and 20) are about students' hobbies.

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire for the students in 6th grade (pdf in Swedish).

Questionnaire to the guardians

The questionnaire conducted in 2005 included 15 questions. The first seven questions concern certain factual circumstances, such as conditions of upbringing and the extent to which the student has participated in preschool activities. Most of the other questions aim to provide a picture of the contact between children and parents and how the parents view the school's activities. Each of the questions consists of a number of sub-questions which concern the following areas:

• progress talks and parent teacher meetings
• the requirements set by the school
• the child's school situation
• the importance of various school subjects
• communication between children and parents
• the information from the school
• school resources
• the school's knowledge transfer

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire for the guardians in 6th grade(pdf in Swedish).

Questionnaire for teachers

At two previous collections, the teachers have also received a questionnaire to get as complete a picture as possible of the student's school situation. The teacher questionnaire consists of 22 questions. Most of the questions are formulated as main questions with a number of sub-questions. The questions concern the following:

• facts about the teacher
• information on the size and composition of the class
• the teacher's assessments of the class' level of knowledge
• experience of school and work content
• working methods and working conditions
• parental involvement
• the existence of evaluations

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire for teachers (pdf in Swedish).

The collection in 9^th grade

The collection was carried out in the spring of 2008, when the students attended 9^th grade of compulsory school. A paper questionnaire was sent home to the students.

The original number of students in the sample was 10,147 and the number of students who received a survey in the data collection in 9^th grade amounted to 9,890. The main reason for the dropout is that the students in question have moved from Sweden. The response rate was 58 percent and the internal dropout rate was generally low. Distortions in data caused by the sample design and omissions are handled using weighting variables.

The scale constructions that refer to self-assessments of general and specific school performance as well as the general interest in learning more in school largely correspond to the scales reported in the previous surveys conducted in 6^th grade for cohort 1982 and the previous collection for 9^th grade in the spring of 2003. In some scales, the number of sub-questions has been increased. However, comparability has been maintained in several of the key issues of interest and self-esteem.

Two questions have been added to this data collection in 9^th grade.  One aims to measure the motivation for learning and was posed to this cohort in 6^th grade. The other investigates the students' perception of the importance of cognitive ability and effort for performance and is completely newly constructed for this collection. The questions about the students' motivation for learning worked well and the four dimensions that were theoretically assumed to be present in the questions turned out well. However, the question of students' perceptions of the importance of cognitive ability and effort did not work well.

The scales that aim to measure parents’ involvement in the school situation, students' well-being at school and their experience of the school situation have been modified somewhat in this survey. In essence, the changes have followed the line advocated in the report on the previous survey (Giota & Cliffordson, 2004).

The approach with the formation of scales means that we get measurements of various phenomena that are both more reliable and have higher validity than what is possible with question models that were usually based on individual questions with only two or three answer alternatives.

Constructing scales by summing the points of the sub-questions and using weighted data are two methods / techniques, among others, that can be used to increase the reliability and validity of the results.

The results from the data collection are described in the report for the questionnaire, see under the heading reports.

Questionnaire for students

The final questionnaire came to include 25 questions of which 17 questions concern primary school, 5 questions are about the student's continued schooling after primary school, 2 questions concern the student's motivation for learning and perception of cognitive ability and 1 question concerns the student's leisure activities. Several of the questions are formulated as main questions with a number of sub-questions followed by four or five answer alternatives. To enable comparison within the same cohort, some of the questions are the same as in the survey of this cohort in 2005 in 6^th grade. The questions concern the following areas.

• Five questions (1, 2, 20, 21 and 22) concern the choice of primary and secondary school, such as active choice of municipal or independent school and the main grounds for these choices.
• Six questions (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) are about the students' general perception of their ability to acquire the subject matter that the school teaches in nine different areas of knowledge, interest in acquiring the subject matter in these areas, self-perceived degree of difficulty in studying during the last three school years in compulsory school, and perception of their ability or competence to cope with certain specific tasks in Swedish, English and mathematics.
• Two questions (16 and 17) concern students' experiences in certain specific school situations and general well-being.
• Five questions (9, 12, 13, 14 and 15) are about working methods in the classroom and students' attitudes to grades.
• One question (11) concerns time spent on homework.
• One question (10) concerns the parents' involvement in the students' school work and one question (25) concerns the students' hobbies.
• Two questions (18 and 19) concern students' motivation for learning and perception of cognitive ability.
• Two questions (23 and 24) concern the students' plans to study abroad during upper secondary school and continue to study at college or university after completing upper secondary education.

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire for students (pdf in Swedish).

Collection the year after high school

The collection was handled by Statistics Sweden in Örebro and was designed as an online survey. Login details along with a cover letter were sent to those who remained in the survey at this time. A total of 9945 people were invited to answer the survey. Reminder letters were sent to those who had not yet answered the questionnaire after a couple of weeks and two more reminder letters were sent. The survey could not be completed until the year after most participants left high school. the number of respondents was a modest 1938 students or 19 percent of the sample. To compensate for the loss, weights have been used which for the most part compensate for the loss.

Questionnaire for students

The final survey included 51 questions and aimed to provide information on:

• how the education received in compulsory school is viewed after a couple of years
• which upper secondary education has been chosen and the reason for the choice
• any study interruptions and the reasons for these
• well-being in high school
• views on upper secondary education
• perceptions of one's own ability in various subjects
• scope of gainful employment in addition to the studies
• how much time was spent on different hobbies
• plans for future education and profession

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire for the students (pdf in Swedish)

Codebook

The number of variables for each cohort varies from a few hundred up to a couple of thousand. Some variables are present in all cohorts, others are only found in some. Some variables enable longitudinal studies, others only cross-sectional studies. UGU has developed an interactive list of variables to make it easier to find among the variables and see relationships between variables in different cohorts.

The variables are accessed through the links below. Questions about documentation are answered via e-mail to data controllers within UGU.

• Codebook for cohort born 1992

Selection principles

The sample design for cohort 1992 consisted of a stratified random two-step cluster selection based on principal areas when the students were in 3^rd grade in the academic year 2000/2001. The municipalities were grouped according to population into six strata. Stratum one consists of the five largest municipalities and six municipalities were drawn from each of the other five strata. The sample includes 35 municipalities with 869 principal areas. Within the 227 selected principal areas, school administrative data were collected for all students in 3^rd grade.

Questionnaires

Student questionnaire, 6^th grade spring 2005 (pdf in Swedish)

Student questionnaire, 9^th grade spring 2008 (pdf in Swedish)

Student questionnaire, after high school spring 2012 (pdf in Swedish)

Parent questionnaire, 6^th grade spring 2005 (pdf in Swedish)

Teacher questionnaire, 6^th grade spring 2005 (pdf in Swedish)

Reports

Reports from IPS (IPD)

Ugu1992, Report on the student questionnaire in 6^th grade spring 2005 (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1992, Report on the parent questionnaire in 6^th grade spring 2005 (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1998_1992_1982, Report on three teacher questionnaire in 6^th grade (pdf 2.9 MB in Swedish)

 Technical reports from Statistics Sweden

Ugu1992, Student questionnaire 6^th grade Technical report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1992, Parent questionnaire 6^th grade Technical report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1992, Teacher questionnaire 6^th grade Technical report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1992, Student questionnaire 9^th grade Technical report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1992, Student questionnaire the year after upper secondary school Technical report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Calibration reports from Statistics Sweden

Ugu1992, Student questionnaire 6^th grade Calibration report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1992, Student questionnaire 9^th grade Calibration report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1992, Student questionnaire the year after upper secondary school Calibration report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)