The second stage of the PSEHK study involved developing and administering a questionnaire. The survey instrument adapted the UK Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey 2012 (see PSEUK 2012) for the Hong Kong context to examine the extent and nature of poverty and social exclusion.
- Socioeconomic and demographic questions – to collect information about the profile of respondents
- Necessities – to measure what items and activities people don’t have and whether this is because of choice or lack of affordability
- Perceptions of standard of living – to ascertain the respondent’s views on the level of income which is needed to keep people above the poverty line
- Social exclusion – to measure aspects of social exclusion including living environment, local services, time use, critical life events, social networks and support, finance situation and debts, physical and mental health, and social and political engagement
- Paradata — this section is completed at the end of the interview but the enumerator as a means of assessing survey and data quality.
In the Necessities section, Shuffle Card Sets (Cards: blue, green, pink, orange) for both the adult and children’s items/activities [Chinese Version only] are given to respondents. On each card there is one item or one activity for an adult or a child. Respondents are asked to consider whether they or their children ‘have’ or ‘don’t have’ and whether they ‘don’t want’ or ‘don’t have and can’t afford’. The cards are shuffled each time by the enumerator in order to avoid response bias.
For example, in relation to the necessities for adults, the enumerator asks:
I’d like to hand you some cards with different items that relate to our standard of living, please tell me which item you have, don’t have but don’t want or don’t have and can’t afford.
The enumerator then records the item number that is given by the respondent in the appropriate box.
The same procedure also applies to the children’s items and activities.