Cohort 1998

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 2008 when the students were in the 3^rd grade of compulsory school. Until 5^th grade only administrative data was collected by Statistics Sweden. In the spring of 2011, 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 2008. 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 1998. The sample includes 9671 students, of which 9180 are included in this survey. The number of students who answered all or parts of the questionnaire was 8007, the parent questionnaire 5971 and the teacher questionnaire 1018. The proportion who answered the student questionnaire is 87 percent, the parent questionnaire 65 percent and the teacher questionnaire 65 percent.

In the spring of 2014, when the majority of the students were in 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 4,573 students responded, which was 47 percent of the sample.

The next questionnaire was given in the spring of 2017 when the majority of the cohort attended the last year of high school. The questionnaire was sent home to the students and a total of 3552 students answered, which was 37 percent of the sample.

In some reports, the results from some of the questionnaires 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 measure of a phenomenon than individual questions. 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 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

Before the survey was started, involved persons and organizations were informed by both project management and the National Agency for Education. Those who were informed were parents, principals, teachers, trade unions, the National Association for Home and School and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities. Due to the fact that classes were divided and students moved, the students were spread over significantly more classes than at the selection three years earlier. The students' school and class affiliation were available from October for the students in 6^th grade. The sample for the survey in the spring term 2011 was the students who attended 6^th grade in the autumn term of 2010 and who are therefore invited to participate. As a result, a parent questionnaire was sent only to the students who were invited to participate and on the same basis, teachers who teach in the classes included in the sample were included. Essentially, the class teacher answered the teacher questionnaire. The teachers informed the students in connection with the implementation of the questionnaire.

The survey was conducted as a postal survey during weeks 12 to 17, with collection up to and including week 23. The collection ended on 13 June 2011. There were three reminders; the first with thanks for participating in the survey, and the last with a telephone reminder to school principals who had not yet submitted their results. The answered questionnaires were scanned and the results were transferred automatically to a data file which was sent deidentified to the project at the University of Gothenburg. More about the implementation can be read in the Technical Report Statistics Sweden compiled in connection with the submission of data.

The individuals included in the sample had the opportunity to contact the survey leaders at both the project group and Statistics Sweden and were asked questions about the collection and its significance. However, very few people were negative about the survey.

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 6th 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 enter the opposite of a particular keyword among four options
• Sheet metal folding: To find 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 22 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.

• The students' general perception is investigated by six questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and shows the students’ perceptions of their ability to acquire knowledge and skills in different areas of knowledge and their general interest in and how important it is to them. to learn in these areas.
• Experiences in specific school situations and school well-being are the focus of three questions (8, 9 and 17) and show how students feel in different learning and social contexts in school and their general school well-being.
• Students' motivation is the focus of one question (10) to examine their motivation to learn in school and whether they have any specific goals with their learning.
• Work methods in the classroom are the focus of two questions (7, 11) to investigate how students and teachers work in the classroom.

• Homework and assignments are investigated by three questions (12, 13 and 14) to find out the time students spend on them and how often these occur, as well as access to help with their homework.

• The parents' involvement in the child's school situation is investigated by two questions (18 and 19) and shows the parents' interest in the child's school situation and its future educational plans.
• The grading question is illustrated by two questions (15 and 16).
• Leisure activities are investigated by three questions (20, 21 and 22) and are about the extent of students' leisure interests.

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire for the students in 6^th grade (pdf 3.2 MB in Swedish).

Questionnaire to the guardians

The questionnaire conducted in 2017 included 18 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. Most of the questions were given in identical or almost identical form to the parents who participated in the survey in 2005. Each question consists of a number of sub-questions. The questions concern the following areas:

• Progress talks and parent teacher meetings
• the requirements set by the school
• the opinion of grades
• 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 parents (pdf 1.4 MB in Swedish).

Questionnaire for teachers

At three 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 25 questions. Most of the questions are formulated as main questions with a number of sub-questions. The questions concern the following areas:

• 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 1.5 MB in Swedish).

The collection in 9^th grade

Questionnaire for students

The collection was carried out in the spring of 2014 when a paper questionnaire was sent home to the students. The questionnaire includes 26 questions. Most of the questions are formulated as main questions with a number of sub-questions with several 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.

• Choice of school is the focus of two questions (1 and 2).
• The ability of students to acquire knowledge and skills in different areas of knowledge and their general interest in learning in these areas is investigated by five questions (4, 5, 6, 7 and 8).
• Experiences in specific school situations and school well-being are investigated by five questions (3, 9, 10, 11 and 12) and show how students feel in different learning and social contexts in school, how much homework the student has had and their general school well-being.
• The student's opinion of the grades and how fair they are is investigated by three questions (13, 14 and 15).
• Students' motivation is investigated in two questions (16 and 17) to examine their motivation to learn in school and whether they have any specific goals with their learning.
• Three questions are about how the student perceives the learning process and the student's well-being (18 and 19).
• Five questions are about the student's continued studies and possible choices for upper secondary school (20, 21, 22, 23 and 24)
• Leisure activities are highlighted by a question (25) and deal with the extent of students' leisure interests.
• The student's health and well-being are highlighted in one question (26).

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire for the students in 9^th grade (pdf 0.7 MB in Swedish).

Collection in upper secondary school 3rd grade

The collection was handled by Statistics Sweden in Örebro and was designed as a web questionnaire and a paper questionnaire. Login details together with a cover letter were sent to those who remained in the survey at this time. The letters went to everyone else in 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.

Questionnaire for students

The final questionnaire included 26 questions, most of them with a number of sub-questions and aimed to obtain information about:

• which upper secondary education had been chosen and which factors guided this choice
• if there have been study interruptions and the reasons for these
• well-being in the upper secondary school
• views on upper secondary education
• perceptions of one's own ability in various subjects
• scope of 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 students in 3^rd grade upper secondary school (pdf 1.5 MB 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 1998

Selection principles

The sample design for cohort 1998 consisted of a stratified sample of schools that had pupils in 3rd grade with a probability of selection proportional to the reported number of pupils according to the compulsory school statistics for the academic year 2007/2008.

Questionnaires

Student questionnaire, 6^th grade spring 2011 (pdf 3.2 MB in Swedish)

Student questionnaire, 9^th grade spring 2014 (pdf 0.7 MB in Swedish)

Student questionnaire, upper secondary school 3^rd grade spring 2017 (pdf 1.5 MB in Swedish)

Parental questionnaire, 6^th grade spring 2011 (pdf 1.4 MB in Swedish)

Teacher questionnaire, 6^th grade spring 2011 (pdf 1.5 MB in Swedish)

Reports

Reports from IPS

Ugu1998, Report on the Student Questionnaire in 6^th grade spring 2011 (pdf 0.9 MB in Swedish)

Ugu1998, Report on the Parent Questionnaire in 6^th grade spring 2011 (pdf 0.4 MB in Swedish)

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

 Technical reports from Statistics Sweden

Ugu1998, Student questionnaire in 6^th grade Technical report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1998, Parent questionnaire in 6^th grade Technical report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1998, Teachers questionnaire in 6^th grade Technical report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1998, Student questionnaire 9^th grade Technical report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1998, Student questionnaire upper secondary school 3^rd grade Technical report SCB (pdf in Swedish)

Calibration reports from Statistics Sweden

Ugu1998, Student questionnaire 6^th grade Calibration report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1998, Parent questionnaire in 6^th grade Calibration report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1998, Student questionnaire 9^th grade Calibration report Statistics Sweden (pdf in Swedish)

Ugu1998, Student questionnaire upper secondary school 3^rd grade Calibration report SCB (pdf in Swedish)