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Jonathan Burton

@jonburton.bsky.social

510 followers 580 following 220 posts

Associate Director for Surveys for Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). Working at ISER, University of Essex pretending to be a grown-up. https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/people/jburton

Videos

Political science 26%

Sociology 22%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 2d

"Do you resist change?" @jdickerson.bsky.social on @slate.com Plus Political Gabfest

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 10d

BLOG: How do you build a survey that works? by Peter Lynn

"In an article published today in the journal Nature: Human Behaviour, I attempt to tackle this question."

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 12d

Research has found that children who have been in childcare were more likely to come from higher-income households, and to have parents with higher education qualifications. It also showed differences in children’s emotional behaviour, depending on the type of childcare they’d received.

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 12d

Childcare more common in higher income families.

Welsh Government uses @usociety.bsky.social to investigate childcare and effects on children

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/welsh...

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Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 12d

The data give researchers a view on the the entire family before and after childbirth. Parents answer questions on fertility, pregnancy and child development, and children complete their own survey from the age of 10.

Reposted by Mel Bartley

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 12d

The latest Pregnancy and Early Childhood data from @usociety.bsky.social are now available from the UK Data Service.

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/09...

Understanding Society collects information on social, economic and behavioural factors, and information on babies/children

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Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 12d

This follows in the trail of great User Guides, such as:
BHPS – Harmonised User Guide
Calendar Year Datasets User Guides
Family Matrix User Guide
Marital and Cohabitation Histories User Guide
Ethnicity Research
Cognitive Ability Measure
National Pupil Database Wave 1 Linkage
DVLA User Guide

Reposted by Mel Bartley

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 12d

New User Guide for @usociety.bsky.social with information on the geographical identifiers and geographical classifications datasets available in Understanding Society and provides information on how they can be used.

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentatio...

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Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 20d

- Indoor environments and energy use
- Adaptation to eco-climate emergency
- Youth online survey

User Guide: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentatio...

Data:
beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogu...

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · 20d

New data from @usociety.bsky.social Innovation Panel is now available.

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/09...

What new experiments are now available?
- Youth survey invite mailing
- Consent decision process
- Identification of informal caregiving
- Labour market expectations
...

Reposted by Jonathan Burton, Maria Sobolewska

Understanding Society @usociety.bsky.social · 27d

New blog: Tak Wing Chan @ioe.bsky.social with a detailed look at immigration and social cohesion. Pundits and some research tell us that diversity undermines trust and solidarity, but can we accept findings which don’t take poverty and inequality into account?

Is there a trade-off between diversity and social cohesion? - Understanding Society

Material deprivation, not social diversity, threatens to stretch and tear the social fabric diversity and social cohesion

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk

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Reposted by David D. Buck, Jonathan Burton, Maria Sobolewska

Understanding Society @usociety.bsky.social · Sep 11

New case study! Charity @pbe.co.uk used our data to show that the £28 billion annual bill for disability benefits creates £42bn in positive effects

Wellbeing boost from disability benefits outweighs cost - Understanding Society

Wellbeing boost from disability benefits worth £12,300 per person New case study shows wellbeing boost from disability benefits worth £12,300 per person

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk

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Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Sep 10

Online course: Survey Measurement of Health: Implications for Social Science Research

A short online training course on the implications of survey measurement of health for future social science research online on 22 and 23 September.

www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/new...

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Sep 9

Each webinar takes place 13.00 to 14.15.
- Linked data: 2 October
- Employment: 9 October
- Family, households and children: 16 October
- Income, wealth and housing: 23 October
- Ethnicity and immigration: 30 October

Topic webinars are free to attend, but you do need to register in advance.

Reposted by Dave O’Brien

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Sep 9

Join the Understanding Society user support team for lunch-time learning on some of the key topic areas covered by @usociety.bsky.social. The free, one-hour online courses are designed for both new and experienced users of Understanding Society.

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/09...

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Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Sep 9

PODCAST from @usociety.bsky.social about pets!

Can we put a monetary value on what pets bring to our lives?

Interviews with Adelina Gschwandtner (Kent) and Ashleigh Brown (RSPCA)

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/podcasts/pet...

Reposted by Jonathan Burton

Understanding Society @usociety.bsky.social · Sep 8

Our podcast is back from its summer break! Our new episode has Adelina Gschwandtner @kent.ac.uk and Ashleigh Brown from RSPCA discussing pets and life satisfaction, and how it’s possible to work out a monetary value for the benefits we get from cats and dogs

Pets and life satisfaction - Understanding Society

Can we put a monetary value on what pets bring to our lives?

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk

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Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Aug 28

Topic webinars
One-hour, lunch time webinars on key topics in @usociety.bsky.social

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/help/trainin...

Linked data – 2 October
Employment – 9 October
Family, households & children – 16 October
Income, wealth & housing – 23 October
Ethnicity & immigration – 30 October

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Aug 28

Reviewing our questions on ethnicity and immigration.

Let us know your views on this important part of the @usociety.bsky.social survey.

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/06...

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Reposted by Jonathan Burton

Renee Reichl Luthra @rrluthra.bsky.social · Aug 28

Two year postdoc at @universityofessex.bsky.social to work with my amazing colleague (see below) on her ERC project "Applied stereotypes, social networks and self-fulfilling prophecies: How stereotypes reinforce social inequalities" Closing date 28.09.2025
vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Aug 15

Quality of Expenditure Data Collected With a Mobile Receipt Scanning App in a Probability Household Panel - by Alexander Wenz, @annettejackle.bsky.social @jonburton.bsky.social Mick P. Couper & Brendan Read.

doi.org/10.18148/srm...

This paper reports on a novel approach using smartphone technology to collect expenditure data in a probability household panel of the general population in Great Britain. Respondents were asked to download an app on their smartphone and report their purchases of goods and services over the period of one month. The app directed respondents to use the built-in camera to photograph all paper receipts that they received at a point of sale. In a separate diary section of the app, they were able to manually enter other expenditures, such as non-receipted payments. In this paper, we compare the quality of the reported expenditure with benchmark data from the Living Costs and Food Survey, the national budget survey in the United Kingdom. The results suggest that total expenditure reported with scanned receipts plus direct entry aligns closely with the national budget survey whereas app data from scanned receipts only clearly underestimate expenditure. Examining category-level expenditure similarly shows that for most categories, the reported expenditure from scanned receipts plus direct entry aligns more closely with the benchmark than scanned receipts only. In addition, the app data align more closely with the national budget survey for respondents who are older, male, have an above-median income, and live in rural areas. The implications of measurement differences vary: comparisons of estimated budget shares are closer to the benchmark for some categories than others.

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Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Aug 14

History of the World in 47 Borders by @jonnelledge.bsky.social whilst crossing the Canadian/Alaskan border

Kindle version of Jonn Elledge’s book “A History of the World in 47 Borders” with the border of Canada and Alaska in the Yukon in the background

Reposted by Brady T. West, Florian Keusch, Jonathan Burton

European Survey Research Association (ESRA) @esrasurvey.bsky.social · Aug 11

📢 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝙎𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙮 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙙𝙨 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄!

The latest issue (Vol. 19, No. 2) of 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘺 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘥𝘴 is here – featuring new research on survey design, data quality, sampling, nonresponse, & more.

See the issue:
🔗 ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/issue/vi...

#SurveyResearch #SurveyMethods #ESRA

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Reposted by Patrick Präg, Jonathan Burton

Understanding Society @usociety.bsky.social · Jun 3

We're reviewing our questions on ethnicity and immigration. If you'd like to give us feedback on the questions we ask and the variables you use for your research there's information on how to take part in the review on our website: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/news/2025/06...

Reviewing our questions on ethnicity and immigration - Understanding Society

We are undertaking a review of the questions included in Understanding Society on the topics of ethnicity and immigration.

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk

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Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Jul 31

Young adults in coastal areas face ‘double whammy of poor mental health’

CASE STUDY from @usociety.bsky.social

Research shows lower self-rated mental health and a higher likelihood of undiagnosed conditions.

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/impact/young...

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Jul 29

@herring1967.bsky.social

Tideland.

Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Jul 29

Data from @usociety.bsky.social helps genetic analysis of rare neurodevelopmental conditions.

BLOG from @hilarycmartin.bsky.social‬

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2025/07...

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Reposted by Jonathan Burton

Understanding Society @usociety.bsky.social · Jul 22

Our latest blog: @hilarycmartin.bsky.social on how data from Understanding Society and others played a part in @sangerinstitute.bsky.social research into rare neurodevelopmental conditions

Common DNA differences and rare brain conditions - Understanding Society

Understanding Society data helps analysis of neurodevelopmental conditions Genomic sequencing has revolutionised our ability to diagnose rare neurodevelopmental conditions

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk

Reposted by Jonathan Burton

Sandra Walzenbach @sawalzenbach.bsky.social · Jul 18

Great #ESRA25 - so much fun to see so many familiar faces, hear all this inspiring research, and cycle the bike paths of beautiful Utrecht!

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Jonathan Burton @jonburton.bsky.social · Jul 10

Getting consent to survey in new ways: evidence from experiments about questions by text message in the @usociety.bsky.social Innovation Panel

Jim Vine, @annettejackle.bsky.social, @jonburton.bsky.social, Mick P. Couper

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/research/pub...

Some information cannot (reliably) be collected in annual surveys of panel members. Text messages (SMS) are well-suited to gathering time-sensitive responses, if a large and representative subset of a panel consents to being surveyed in this way. We investigate: (1) What proportion of respondents consent to text message questions? How does that vary by sample cohort, mode, and whether previously asked for consent? (2) What is the effect of consent question placement within the questionnaire? (3) Is bias of the covered sample reduced by re-asking non-consenters at a later wave? (4) What coverage of non-internet users is gained by seeking consent for text message questioning? We use data from experiments within two waves (IP13 and IP15) of the Innovation Panel of Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study. For comparisons of subsets, the proportions consenting are reported along with test statistics for group differences. For the mixed-mode experiment, we report both as-treated and intention-to-treat values, as well as instrumental variable analysis to estimate the effect of mode distinct from selection effects. Bias is analysed via differences between proportions in categories in the overall sample and the covered sub-sample. Most respondents consented to questions by text message when first asked (69% in IP13, 74% in IP15). Of those who declined consent at IP13, 55% consented when re-asked two years later. Face-to-face respondents were more likely to consent than web respondents. Slightly more (2.4 percentage points, s.e.1.5 percentage points) respondents consented when experimentally asked late in the questionnaire than early. Re-asking consent not only reduced the proportion of people who had not provided consent, it also reduced non-consent bias, measured across a range of socio-demographic characteristics. Some panel members who never use the internet use mobile phones and consent to receive questions via text message, so this may complement web …