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Cohort 2004

Cohort 2004 is a stratified municipality and school selection where the majority of students were born in 2004. The first collection was made in 6th grade in 2017 and consisted of tests and questionnaires.

Summary

The purpose of the comprehensive data surveys is to enable both longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys of large and representative student samples. The follow-up survey of this current sample began in the spring of 2014 when the pupils were in 3^rd grade of compulsory school. Until 5^th grade only school administration information was collected by Statistics Sweden. In the spring of 2017, when the majority of the students attended 6^th grade, the school administrative information was supplemented with information obtained directly from students, guardians and the teachers concerned.

The survey population consists of the students who in the spring semester of 2014 attended compulsory school 3^rd grade, 9775 students. The population is, by definition, delimited with regard to grade affiliation, which means that it includes students with different years of birth. The majority or just over 96 per cent were born in 2004. The number of students who answered all or parts of the questionnaire was 5190 and the parent survey 4785. The proportion who answered the student survey is 53 per cent and the parental survey 49 per cent. The number of teachers who answered the teacher survey is 731.

The next collection took place in the spring of 2020 when the majority of the students attended 9^th grade. At that collection, a questionnaire was sent home to the students with the option to respond via a paper survey or an online survey. The response rate was low with 2523 respondents or 26.4 percent.

Basic information

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

School administrative data

The school administrative information was obtained from grades 3, 4, 5 and 6. 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
year
age integrated or age diverse class?
mother tongue
Swedish for immigrants
date when moving to another school
new municipality
new school
grades when given

The collection in 6^th grade

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.

The students' general perception is available by five questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and shows the students’ perceptions of their ability to acquire knowledge and skills in different areas of knowledge and their general interest in learning in these areas.
Experiences in specific school situations and school well-being are the focus of five questions (6, 7, 8, 14 and 20) 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 (9) 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 one question (10) to investigate how students and teachers work in the classroom.

Homework and assignments are investigated by three questions (11, 12 and 13). To find out how much 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 (15 and 16) and shows the parents' interest in the child's school situation and its future educational plans.
The grading question is investigated by two questions (17 and 18).
Leisure activities are investigated by one question (19) and deal with the extent of students' leisure interests.

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire for students in 6^th grade (pdf 1 MB in Swedish).

Questionnaire to the guardians

The questionnaire conducted in 2017 included 14 questions. The first three questions concern certain factual circumstances such as who answers the questionnaire and to what extent 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 question consists of a number of sub-questions. The questions concern the following areas.

Choice of school (questions 4 and 5).
Progress talks and parent teacher meetings (6).
The requirements set by the school (7).
The opinion of grades (8).
The child's school situation (9).
The importance of various school subjects (10).
Communication between children and parents (11).
School resources (12)
Information from the school (13)
The school's knowledge transfer (14).

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire form for guardians in 6^th grade (pdf 0.5 MB in Swedish).

Questionnaire for teachers

At four 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 24 questions. Most of the questions are formulated as main questions with a number of sub-questions. The questions concern the following areas.

Information on the size and composition of the class (1, 2, 3, 4 and 7).
The teacher's assessments of the class' level of knowledge (5 and 6).
Facts about the teacher (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15).
Experience of school and the content of the work (16 and 17)
Working methods and working conditions (18 and 20).
Opinion of grades (19).
Parental involvement (21).
Self-perception of competence (22).
Organization of and need for support in the class (23 and 24).

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the questionnaire for teachers in 6^th grade (pdf 0.7 MB in Swedish).

The collection in 9^th grade

Questionnaire for students

The questionnaire includes 26 questions and an opportunity to comment. 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 their 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 investigated by one question (25) and deal with the extent of students' leisure interests.
The student's health and well-being are investigated 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 1^st grade in upper secondary school

"The corona survey"

During the period December 2020 to April 2021, the UGU project conducted a survey on the impact of corona pandemics on life inside and outside school. Most of the participants then went to 1^st grade upper secondary school. The survey focused on questions about the consequences of the corona and covid-19 pandemic, especially within school, but also about life in general. A total of 3068 students responded to the survey, which was given exclusively as an online survey.

Four questions concerned how much the students stayed home from school and how the teaching changed during the pandemic.
• Three questions were about how the grades in 9^th grade were affected and also how the students perceived the absence of national tests.
Three questions were about whether the student is studying in high school and whether the choice for high school was affected by the pandemic.
Three questions were about the existence of distance education and the students' perception of it.
Four questions were about concerns, both generally and specifically related to the pandemic.
One question was about how leisure activities were affected.
Seven questions addressed the impact of the pandemic on the family, both on direct impact through possible illness and indirectly through impact on relationships.
One question concerned the view of the future.
In two open-ended questions, the students were told about the positive and negative effects that the pandemic had on them.

Collection in 3rd grade in upper secondary school

Student survey followed by a follow-up of the "Corona survey"

In the spring of 2023, the UGU project collected the last survey for students born in 2004. At that time, the majority of the students in the sample were estimated to be in the 3rd year of upper secondary school. The survey also wanted to follow up on the special pandemic survey that the students answered in the spring of 2021 and therefore combined our regular questionnaire with our questionnaire for COVID-19. The questionnaire was answered by the students on the web and contained 34 questions where the first 26 questions belong to our regular survey, followed by 8 selected questions from the Corona survey.

UGU's questionnaire for students contained questions regarding...

which upper secondary education was chosen and what factors guided this choice.
possible discontinuation of studies and the reasons for these.
well-being in upper secondary school.
views on general upper secondary education.
perceptions of one's own ability in different subjects.
extent of gainful employment while studying.
how much time was spent on different hobbies.
plans for future education and profession.

The questions from the Corona survey included questions regarding...

pupils' experiences of distance learning.
pupils' perceived concerns.
leisure activities after the corona restrictions.
how the pandemic affected students, family members and other close relatives.

The exact wording of the questions can be found in the Student Questionnaire, Year 3 in Upper Secondary School Cohort 2004 (pdf 1.3 MB).

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 search 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 2004

Selection principles

The sample was drawn in 2014. The sample framework in 2014 consisted of primary schools (not Sami schools) that had pupils in 3^rd grade during the academic year 2013/14. The sample was stratified by type of school governance to ensure that a sufficient number of students in independent schools were represented. For more information on population, stratification and original selection, please refer to the documentation of Statistics Sweden's longitudinal student panels. The sample drawn in 2014 included a total of 9,794 students.