ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the methodological strategy adopted in the research project, and details the research techniques used. It also outlines the research design and strategy; strengths and weaknesses of secondary analysis. The chapter explores the panel survey data and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). It focuses on how the samples were established and their key characteristics and details of measures of wellbeing, parental employment, and an appraisal of the analytical techniques employed. It describes the parental employment patterns for the young people in both the youth and the follow-on samples. Nathan compared responses to those from Census data, the General Household Survey (GHS) and the Family Expenditure Survey (FES), with respect to age, sex, marital status, socio-economic group, ethnicity, employment status and household characteristics, concluding that cumulative attrition in the BHPS is limited and does not lead to serious bias.
