Polish General Social Survey Research Articles

THE OCCURRENCE OF MISSING DATA IN SURVEYS

The purpose of this article is to discuss issues related to the analysis of missing data. Why do missing data occur in a data set? What percentage of the collected data constitutes missing data? What is the nature of missing data that emerges during data collection? The above questions are extremely important in assessing conducted surveys or in evaluating the quality of the collected data. A lack of reflection on the aspects mentioned above may lead to false conclusions and recommendations. This article presents not only an overview of the literature regarding missing data, but also shows how in a practical way an analysis of the randomness of missing data can be performed. The analysis presented in the article is based on data collected as part of the Polish General Social Survey carried out in 2008. The main recommendation of the author is to conduct an analysis of the randomness of missing data before analyzing the collected data.

Higher education expansion, system transformation, and social inequality. Social origin effects on tertiary education attainment in Poland for birth cohorts 1960 to 1988

This paper analyzes the development of social inequality in the Polish higher education system during its expansion after 1990 using data from the Polish General Social Survey. Focusing on the special case of a former socialist society, where higher education expansion has been very rapid and achieved mainly through marketization, this paper highlights the micro-level mechanisms that underlie the inequality dynamic. It shows how actor preferences embedded in the specific historical context shape educational behavior, producing moments of equalization and de-equalization. Class inequality regarding access to tertiary education decreased in the early 1990s and then increased again, as participation in the working classes stagnated at a low level in the later phases of the expansion. In contrast, no equalization has been observed between children of different educational origins. The analysis shows a persistent intergenerational reproduction of educational disadvantage in spite of the expansion. Lastly, consistent with the Effectively Maintained Inequality thesis, this paper provides evidence for underprivileged strata being diverted into second-tier, lower-prestige educational opportunities in the private sector.

Religiosity and politics in Spain and Poland: A period effect analysis

The aim of this study is to compare how the Catholic Church’s involvement in politics under authoritarian rule in Spain and Poland impacted on religiosity in those countries after the transition to democracy. The Catholic Church was a key political actor during the Franco regime in Spain and communist rule in Poland. However, the nature of its political involvement in each case was quite different: while in Spain the Catholic Church legitimized the Franco regime, in Poland it was one of the main actors opposing communist rule. The authors use data from the Polish General Social Survey covering 1991–2008 and several surveys carried out by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Studies (CIS) between 1975 and 1995. Results confirm that the political involvement of the Catholic Church had different impacts on subsequent religious practice in each country. In Spain secularization was especially intense during the political transition in the late 1970s, while in Poland after the 1990s there was only a moderate shift toward secularization.

Determinants and perceptions of social mobility in Poland, 1992-2008

The purpose of this article is to analyse the factors affecting social mobility in Poland, based on results obtained from the estimation of logit models for the years 1992-2008 as well as from interviews asking about the necessary conditions to achieve success in life. Data used in this work come from the Polish General Social Survey carried out by the Institute of Social Studies of the University of Warsaw on a representative sample of adult household members. This set contains interviews conducted in the years 1992-2008 and includes 16,234 respondents. Studies using logit models to answer the question posed in the present study show that the probability of success in life in Poland is determined by both ability and level of education; interview responses to the same question, however, show that family origins, parents’ level of education and connections are just as important. Most interestingly, the percentage of people indicating the importance of these factors was higher in 2002 than it was in 1992.

Zastosowanie programu Mplus w modelowaniu ukrytych przejść w segmentacji rynku

The article is devoted to the applications of latent transition models (LTA) in dynamic market segmentation. A generalisation of the latent class models, these models take into account the dynamic nature of the data. They allow for the identification of unobserved market segments, the assessment of conditional probabilities and transition patterns within latent statuses in time. LTA model was used to evaluate the dynamic segments in three separate waves of research based on economic status indicators in data from the Polish General Social Survey.

Demografia a moralność. Opinie Polaków

Notions of demography and morality were used in the title of the paper. In the paper itself they were define as population movement and religious morality (i.e. religiosity, in many aspects and application approach). It is important in Polish society since it is still seen as a very catholic.The fundamental presumption is that values determine our style of life, behavior and opinions. The aim of the article is to show the relation of religious morality and opinions on family, natality and abortion. Data from various surveys were used in analysis. They were: Polish General Social Survey, Polish Opinion Research Center’s reports, Instytut Statystki Kościoła Katolickiego reports, ‘Social Diagnosis’.

A latent class analysis of the public attitude towards the euro adoption in Poland

Latent class analysis can be viewed as a special case of model–based clustering for multivariate discrete data. It is assumed that each observation comes from one of a number of classes, groups or subpopulations, with its own probability distribution. The overall population thus follows a finite mixture model. When observed, data take the form of categorical responses—as, for example, in public opinion or consumer behavior surveys it is often of interest to identify and characterize clusters of similar objects. In the context of marketing research, one will typically interpret the latent number of mixture components as clusters or segments. In fact, LC analysis provides a powerful new tool to identify important market segments in target marketing. We used the model based clustering approach for grouping and detecting inhomogeneities of Polish opinions on the euro adoption. We analyzed data collected as part of the Polish General Social Survey using the R software.

Secularization in Poland and Spain after the democratic transition: A cohort analysis

The objective of this article is to determine the extent to which the evolution of religiosity in Spain and Poland in their post-democratic transition periods has been affected by the process of generational replacement. For Spain data are drawn from several surveys carried out by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Studies (CIS) between 1980 and 1996. For Poland the data come from the Polish General Social Survey and ISSP covering 1992–2008. Results show two radically different patterns of religious change. The fall in religious practice in Spain observed throughout the first 16 years after the political transition was due mostly to the inter-cohort change that affects each new generation born after 1950. In the case of Poland, post-transition change is less marked and due mainly to decline in religious practice on the individual level. The study also observes that the cohorts of Poles born during and after the fall of communism are significantly less religious than older cohorts.

Ideology and Social Position in Poland: The Determinants of Voting for the Right, 1991–2005*

Objective. The far Right's rise to power in Poland in 2005 left many observers curious about the relationship between conditions of rising inequality, recent E.U. accession, and the changing resonance of right‐wing ideology. This study analyzes Polish voting patterns over the 1991–2005 period in order to determine the effects of ideological and social‐structural variables on political behavior in a postsocialist context.Methods. The study employs bivariate analysis to assess the persistence or novelty of associations between conservative ideologies and right‐wing voting throughout a period of macro‐structural change. The data are drawn from the Polish General Social Survey.Results. The analysis indicates that by 2001, three ideological factors became newly correlated with voting for the Right: religious traditionalism, anti‐Communism, and free market values. Structurally, Poles with more years of education were the new base of party support by 2001.Conclusions. Contrary to expectations, postsocialism's economic “losers”—those with less education, less income, the unemployed—were not more likely to turn to the Right. Middle‐class interests began to have greater political influence by the end of this period, a conclusion that seems supported by more recent election outcomes.

GENDER, SELF-REPORTED HEALTH, AND HEALTH-RELATED LIFESTYLES IN POLAND

Little is known about gender differences in the health of individuals in the former Eastern Europe. Determinants of health and health-related lifestyles may operate differently there than in the West. Data from the 1994 Polish General Social Survey (PGSS) are used to estimate structural and psychosocial effects on self-reported health, risk behaviors, and social participation for women and men. Employment improves the chance of better health for men, whereas marital happiness increases the probability of better health for women; smoking declines with education among men but not among women; and excessive drinking increases for unhappily married men. Religiosity protects the health of both women and men. This research sheds light on the possible sources of gender differences in health in Poland.

Political Tolerance in Poland and the United States

Some experts say that in Eastern Europe, under the surface of pro-democratic attitudes, persists an authoritarian and intolerant political culture. Synchronic and diachronic comparisons of tolerance in Poland (1993 Polish General Social Survey, N = 1649) and the U.S. (1954 Stouffer's data and National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey, NORC GSS, data, 1972-93) do not support this view. Polish opinions appear nearly as tolerant as contemporary American opinions, and more tolerant than American opinions in the past. Education, stratification, and age predict tolerance similarly in Poland and America. Combined with findings from previous research, these data suggest that intolerance in Eastern Europe may be a transient result of recent and current conflicts rather than a primordial politico-cultural element