Guide for using SPSS dataset “GSS Child”
Guide for using SPSS dataset: “GSS Child”
By J. Spickard
This dataset allows students to analyze the social patterns behind people’s ideals about raising children. Since 1986, the General Social Survey has asked respondents to rank five things that everyone agrees children need to learn. The issue is: which of these five is the most important?
Here is the basic question:
· If you had to choose, which thing on this list would you pick as the most important for a child to learn to prepare him or her for life?
o To obey
o To be popular or well-liked
o To think for her- or himself
o To work hard
o To help others
· The interviewer then asked which lesson the respondent would rank second, which third, which fourth, and which last.
This dataset contains ten variables from these questions. The first five – OBEY, POPULAR, THNKSELF, WORKHARD, and HELPOTH – contain the rankings that respondents gave each of these lessons. The second five – OBEYTOP, POPTOP, THINKTOP, WORKTOP, and HELPTOP – indicate whether that lesson was among the top two in the respondent’s ranking.
For example, here are one respondent’s scores:
OBEY / POPULAR / THNKSELF / WORKHARD / HELPOTH / OBEYTOP / POPTOP / THINKTOP / WORKTOP / HELPTOP4 / 5 / 1 / 2 / 3 / No / No / Yes / Yes / No
The first activity is to see how many of the respondents gave each possible answer to these questions.
A second activity is more interesting. The dataset also contains a series of demographic variables. These are in the table at the top of the next page. The second activity involves seeing whether (and how) different types of people give different answers to these questions. How, for example, to Whites and Blacks differ in what they think their children need to learn? How about married vs divorced people? Liberals versus conservatives? Catholics versus people with no religion?
o YEAR / The year of the survey / o MARITAL / Marital status / o POLVIEWS / Liberal, moderate, or conservativeo SEX / M/F / o EVDIVORCE / Ever divorced? / o RELIGION / Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Other, or None
o COHORT / To which generation does the respondent belong? / o NUMKIDS / Number of kids / o FUNDLIB / Fundamentalist, moderate, or liberal
o AGE / Age (grouped) / o DEGREE / Highest degree earned / o ATTENDCH / How often attend church?
o RACE / White, Black, Other / o INCOME / Family income (by quintiles, 2014 figures) / o HAPPY / How happy with life?
o RACEB/W / Race limited to B/W / o WORKING / Work status / o HAPPYMAR / How happy with marriage?
o HISPANIC / Yes/no / o OCCPREST / Prestige of one’s occupation / o HEALTH / How healthy?
o REGION / Region of U.S. / o BORNUSA / Born in the U.S? / o EXLIFE / How exciting is life?
o SIZEPLACE / Big city, suburb, town, rural / o PARTYID / Political party identification
The third activity compares any of these factors over time. The dataset contains data from four different years: 1986, 1994, 2004, and 2014. Have people’s attitudes changed over that time? If so, how? Whose attitudes have changed the most? Whose have changed the least?
NOTE: This dataset has been cleaned, to make it easy for student analysis. Answers such as “Not applicable” or “Don’t know” have been eliminated. Data have been grouped into categories for cross-tabulation.
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