Taiwan Social Change Survey, 2014, Religion

DOI

10.17605/OSF.IO/R7AHB

Citation

Chang, Y., & Tu, S. (2021, March 10). Taiwan Social Change Survey, 2014, Religion.

Summary

In the early 1980s, the former National Science Council (now the Ministry of Science and Technology) initiated the Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS), which completed the first national representative survey in 1985. Since 1990, the annual TSCS has consisted of two independent survey modules each year. To facilitate time series comparisons, the TSCS devotes one of the two annual survey modules to repeat major research topics every five years. The other module of the annual survey focuses on other social phenomena that are important to the social sciences and the Taiwanese society alike. All the data collected by the TSCS have been released, free of charge, to the academic community.

The TSCS team also initiates and participates in international comparative surveys. Since 2002, the TSCS has been an active member in both the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and the East Asian Social Survey (EASS). All the data collected by the TSCS have been released, free of charge, to the academic community. By the end of 2014, the TSCS series has accumulated 54 survey data sets, which cover behaviors, attitudes, and values of 113,327 respondents. In the wave of the globalization of social surveys, not only will the TSCS continue to cover its major national research agenda, but it also will aim to present and demonstrate the characteristics of Taiwanese social changes by incorporating both ISSP and EASS modules into the surveys. Such a combination of local, regional, and global research interests should preserve the tradition of the TSCS while it expands into the international community. This survey is the fifth year and six wave of Questionnaire II: Religion.

The Religion Questionnaire continues the religion survey in the fifth year and fifth wave in 2009. Because in 2009 the survey adopted Religion Core Questionnaire by ISSP, the originally decided items on religion and culture were not fully included. This wave plans to fill the gaps and the survey is designed according to points listed below. First, although outdated items were removed since the fourth year fifth wave, items recording long term social changes, especially those recording religion and social changes in slow paces should remain. Second, regardless of social structure and individual levels, religion and culture are highly correlated. Topics of this survey includes: 1. Cultures and Values, 2. Religious Globalization, 3. Festivalization, culturalization, and spiritualization of folk religions, 4. Relevant phenomenon of Christian Charismatic Movement, 5. Social participation.


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Data File

Cases: 1934
Variables: 218
Weight Variable: WR_19_5

Data Collection

Aug 3 - Nov 5, 2014

Original Survey (Instrument)

Taiwan Social Change Survey Questionnaire, Religion

Funded By

National Science Council & Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica

Collection Procedures

Our sampling frame consists of registered non-institutional residents aged 18 or over in Taiwan. The sampling area includes basically the main island of Taiwan, excluding the outlying islands. The three-stage Stratified PPS Sampling was used to select respondents (please refer to "sampling procedures" for more information about the sampling design). Data were collected from August to November in 2014 by face-to-face interview. We sent postal letters to all sampled individuals for advanced contacts. Interviewers must follow certain rules when they approached an address. Visits were made at different times of day and on different days of the week. Interviewers were required to make at least three visits before they stopped approaching an address.

Sampling Procedures

The following variables are used to stratify the population frame into seven levels of regions: population density, educational level, the proportion of population over age 65, the proportion of population between ages 15 and 64, the proportion of industrial employment as the total employment, and the proportion of service sector employment as the total employment. The sampling design has three stages. For the first stage, the number of target respondents is decided for each of the seven strata of regions proportionate to the size of their populations. For the second stage, the number of townships is decided for each regional level and is randomly selected from each level. Districts or villages then are randomly selected from each chosen township. For the third stage, around 21 to 30 individuals ages 18 or over are randomly selected from household registers in each precinct or village. Finally, the sample size is 2004 for both questionnaires.

Principal Investigators

Ying-hwa Chang, Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica
Su-hao Tu, Research Fellow, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica

Related Publications

Related publications (only available in Chinese)

TSCS 2009 Report (only available in Chinese):

TSCS web sites (English version)

Note on Years

When "R.O.C. year" appears in the survey, it refers to the year according to the calendar of the Republic of China. (Taiwan has its own calendar year system. For example, the Taiwan year "84" refers to the year 1995 in the R.O.C. calendar.)

Weighting

Data were weighted using an iterative, proportional raking scheme. Each observation was weighted by gender, age, urbanization, and education level. Weights were then generated to match the population characteristics of Taiwan.

International Social Survey Program, 2008

The ISSP 2008 module was fielded with the Taiwan Social Change Survey 2009. The survey topics include religious beliefs, religious attitudes, religious behavior, numerology and magic, special religious experience, behaviors concerning charitable organizations, cultural values, concepts concerning charitable organizations, perceptions and evaluations of different cultures.