This section describes the way in which the characteristics of young people are measured in this report. Variation in young people's participation in volunteer work is described in terms of these characteristics in Tables 5 to 10.
Schema of the model underlying the analyses
Sex Respondents were asked Sex? Male/Female.
Family socioeconomic status is the principal component of several measures of the economic and educational background of a panel member's family of origin:
- father's and mother's (or step-parent's) current or last occupation measured by ASCO version 1 major occupational group. The principal measure was a question asked in the 1997 telephone survey. Where this was missing, responses from the 1995 questionnaire were used;
- father's and mother's highest educational attainment;
- father's and mother's (or step-parent's) current main activity in 1997: employed, self-employed, unemployed, not in the labour force;
- score from the ABS's Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) economic resource index and education and occupation index linked to the postcode of the home address of the panel member in 1995;
- a wealth index based on the presence or absence of certain possessions in the home in 1996; and
- the number of books the panel member reported in their home.
The resulting principal component scores were categorised into quintiles, from the 20% of respondents with the highest socioeconomic scores to the 20% of respondents with the lowest scores.
Respondent's country of birth categorised as born in Australia, born in another mainly English-speaking country, or born in a mainly non-English-speaking country.
Parents' countries of birth where mother's and father's country of birth were first categorised as Australia, other mainly English-speaking, or mainly non-English-speaking, and then combined as both mother and father from mainly non-English-speaking countries, both from a mainly English-speaking country other than Australia, at least one parent from a country other than Australia, and both born in Australia.
Frequency with which English is spoken in the home Panel members were asked How often do you speak English at home? with the available responses Always or almost always, Sometimes or Rarely or never.
Indigenous status is based on responses to the question Are you an Aboriginal person or a Torres Strait Islander person? Responses were checked against the reported country of birth of the respondent and their parents.
Disabled is based on responses to the question Do you have a disability which entitles you to receive special funding or access to special education support services? (asked in 1995), Do you have any disability for which you receive special funding or access to special services? or Do you have any disability or health problem which limits the amount or type of work you can do? (asked in 1997). If a respondent answered Yes to any of these questions, he or she was categorised as disabled.
Location is based on the postcode of the panel members' home address when they were in Year 9 and the corresponding value for the ABS SEIFA for the Urban and Rural Indices of Disadvantage. Where a postcode had corresponding value for the Urban Index of Disadvantage but not for the Rural Index of Disadvantage, it was classified as Urban, where a postcode had corresponding values for both the Urban and Rural Indices it was classified as Partly rural and where there was a corresponding value for the Rural Index of Disadvantage but not the Urban Index, the postcode was classified as Rural. This measure is based on the respondent's location in Year 9 which may well differ from their location at age 20 or 21.
Type of school is based on the school the respondent attended in Year 9.
Literacy and numeracy is based on responses to the multiple choice reading and mathematics test administered in school when panel members were in Year 9. The two tests were scored separately with corrections for guessing, normed to a common mean and standard deviation, and then summed. Respondents were then categorised into quintiles on the basis of their score.
Self-concept is a measure of the view panel members have of themselves. It is the first principle component underlying responses to the questions:
- How agreeable would you say you are?
- How open to new experiences would you say you are?
- How popular would you say you are?
- How intellectual would you say you are?
- How calm would you say you are?
- How hardworking would you say you are?
- How outgoing would you say you are?
- How confident would you say you are?
with the responses Very, Fairly, Not really, Not at all and Unsure/can't say. The Unsure response was treated as missing. Factor scores on the first component were then divided into five quintiles ranging from the 20% of the population with the most positive self-concept to the 20% of the population with the least positive self-concept.
Years of schooling completed is based on responses to questions over the course of the survey about attendance at school. A student who left school in June or earlier was deemed not to have completed that year of schooling. A student who left in July or later was deemed to have completed that year of schooling.
Current activity is based on the respondent's employment and study at the time of interview. Full-time work is 35 hours or more per week. Information on the educational enrolment of respondents in 2001 was unavailable at the time of writing the report.