Study title

The European Values Study is a large-scale, cross-national and longitudinal survey research program on how Europeans think about family, work, religion, politics, and society. Repeated every nine years in an increasing number of countries, the survey provides insights into the ideas, beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values, and opinions of citizens all over Europe. The EVS 2008 wave maintains a persistent focus on a broad range of values. Questions are highly comparable across waves and regions, making EVS suitable for studying trends over time. A significant improvement in this fourth wave is the rich set of socio-demographic background variables added to the questionnaire, facilitating far-reaching analyses of the determinants of values. Moral, religious, societal, political, work, and family values of Europeans. Topics: 1. Perceptions of life: importance of work, family, friends and acquaintances, leisure time, politics and religion; frequency of political discussions with friends; happiness; self-assessment of own health; memberships and unpaid work (volunteering) in: social welfare services, religious or church organisations, education, or cultural activities, labour unions, political parties, local political actions, human rights, environmental or peace movement, professional associations, youth work, sports clubs, women´s groups, voluntary associations concerned with health or other groups; tolerance towards minorities (people with a criminal record, of a different race, left/right wing extremists, alcohol addicts, large families, emotionally unstable people, Muslims, immigrants, AIDS sufferers, drug addicts, homosexuals, Jews, gypsies and Christians - social distance); trust in people; estimation of people´s fair and helpful behaviour; internal or external control; satisfaction with life. 2. Work: reasons for people to live in need; importance of selected aspects of occupational work; employment status; general work satisfaction; freedom of...