« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Executive Summary
Background
- Since 1998 a Government-led communications campaign has been run to address the issue of domestic abuse in Scotland. The main objective of the campaign is to reinforce public opposition to, and condemnation of, domestic abuse as totally unacceptable behaviour.
- The Office of Chief Researcher commissioned TNS System Three to conduct research to monitor the awareness and effectiveness of the campaign. TNS System Three has been conducting this research since the inception of the communications campaign.
- The TNS System Three omnibus, Scottish Opinion Survey ( SOS), was used as the vehicle for data collection. Across Scotland, 1032 adults aged 16 and above were interviewed at this latest (9 th) wave, over the period 26 th January to 1 st February 2006.
Main findings
- The level of reported experience of domestic abuse across the sample increased at this latest wave. When asked whether they had any experience of domestic abuse 1, 39% of respondents claimed to have had any experience (compared to 36% at Wave 8). However this marked a return to levels similar to the previous year (38% at Wave 7).
- The level of respondents perceiving domestic abuse as affecting all age groups has fallen at the latest wave (43%) after steadily increasing over recent waves (47% Wave 7, 48% Wave 8). The level of those perceiving domestic abuse as affecting all social classes has also continued to drop back (67% Wave 7, 64% Wave 8, 61% Wave 9).
- Spontaneous awareness of advertising for domestic abuse was high at this 9 th wave (78%), exceeding levels found at the previous three waves (72-76%).
- TV continued to dominate the media recalled spontaneously, at 91%. Radio advertising (12%) showed a continued increase in spontaneous recall at Wave 9, building on levels found at Wave 7 (5%) and Wave 8 (8%), reflecting its role as the main secondary medium for the campaign.
- The recall of detail from the latest TV advert, Reminder, was not high: just a quarter of respondents (25%) could recall any detail from the advert. There remained relatively high levels of residual recall for previous campaign executions such as Doll's House (13%), the advert shown in 2003/2004.
- When prompted with the TV advert at the latest wave, the level of reach 2 was 69%, equal to levels found at Wave 6 (69%) and Wave 7 (70%). It was, however, significantly higher than the level found at the previous wave (47%) 3.
- Respondents were shown the ReminderTV advert and asked what the main message was. Almost half of respondents (46%) mentioned mental / psychological abuse, specifically domestic abuse is not just physical, it can be verbal / mental / psychological (24%). A fifth (21%) thought that the main message was no excuse - zero tolerance, whilst an eighth (13%) mentioned help is available.
- Respondents were played the Elizabeth radio advert from the latest campaign: 35% claimed to have heard it.
- The total campaign reach 4 for all media combined was 78% ( TV or radio).
- Attitudinally, the relatively strong views in relation to domestic abuse seen in previous waves have been maintained. The most significant movement at the present wave was the decrease in the number agreeing that sometimes women can have a good reason for hitting their partner, which fell from 26% at Wave 8 to 18% at Wave 9. There is also some evidence to suggest that respondents who had seen campaign advertising held stronger attitudes on the subject of domestic abuse than those who had not.
« Previous | Contents | Next »