Title: Secondary analysis
Course: UGQuants (SSPS) > Section: Survey Design

Secondary analysis

We have seen that surveys can help us with a wide range of research topics. Let’s say for instance we are interested in exploring the assertion ‘slap and shout at your kids and they are more likely to bully each other’. To do so we may set about designing our own survey and this is indeed what the remainder of this part of the course seeks to enable us to do. However, before we opt down this path, it is important to consider the wealth of existing survey data and to explore whether the information required to explore the particular topic we are interested in has already been collected. For example, the Growing Up in Scotland Study contains a range of information relating to both parental discipline practices and children’s behaviour and peer relationships. We might therefore be able to use this existing data to explore our research topic, and it may not be necessary to undertake our own survey. The use of existing survey data in this way is known as secondary analysis. Secondary analysis is essentially the analysis of data collected by other researchers or official statistics produced by government, usually for purposes other than those for which they were collected. It is important to note that secondary analysis can be qualitative but is more typically quantitative.

As noted, in the UK there is a wealth of survey data available with which we can undertake secondary analysis. Some examples of notable social surveys include:

Growing up in Scotland study http://www.growingupinscotland.org.uk/ | British Household Panel Survey/Understanding Society http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/survey/bhps
Scottish Social Attitudes Survey http://www.esds.ac.uk/government/ssa/ | European Social Survey http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/