Seven years in the lives of British families: Evidence on the dynamics of social change from the British Household Panel Survey

Description

"The family" is a central feature of most people's lives, the framework within which other relationships, activities and events take place. But our families have changed greatly over the last generation, not only in the formal demographics of marriage, cohabitation and childbearing, but also in the social and economic relationships between men and women and between adults and children. This study is the result of a seven-year survey drawing on a sample of more than 5000 households, from the British Household Panel Survey - 10,000 adults - interviewed between 1991 and 1997. The survey has been analyzed by teams of specialists to build up an understanding of the dynamics of the family in such fields as household formation, employment, income, and so on. The material has now grown to the point at which the various lines of enquiry can be combined to provide a picture of "seven years in the lives of British families".

Richard Berthoud, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex and Jonathan Gershuny, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex

"This book successfully achieves its objectives of bringing the findings of the British Househld survey to the attention of as wide an audience as possible. Its easily accessible style makes it absorbing reading for the layman and specialist alike, whilst its succinct argument and wide-ranging data and references make it an essential source for all those with an interest in the dynamics of modern society" Social Policy Focus vol 1,no.1 "... a key text for data on the relationship between households and social change in the last decades of the twentieth century." Work, Employment & Society