The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND AND METHOD

1.1 Since 1998, the Scottish Government has been conducting yearly advertising campaigns to communicate the message and strengthen the view that domestic abuse is totally unacceptable.

1.2 The most recent wave of this campaign was launched on 26 ^th December 2007 and consisted of two TV and two radio adverts, as well as billboard posters and public relations activity. This campaign focused on the effects of domestic abuse on children, and the target audience was the adult population of Scotland.

1.3 Following each of the previous ten waves of advertising activity, research has been conducted by TNS System Three. This research has tracked awareness of the advertising and attitudes towards, and perceptions of, domestic abuse.

1.4 The primary aim of this wave of research was to evaluate the impact of the latest phase of the campaign amongst the population as a whole in order to assess attitudes towards domestic abuse, ascertain perceptions of domestic abuse victims in terms of age and class, and to establish spontaneous and prompted awareness of the TV and radio ads.

1.5 In order to survey a representative sample of the Scottish adult population, this research utilised the Scottish Opinion Survey ( SOS), the same methodology used for all previous waves of the domestic abuse campaign evaluation. Fieldwork took place at the end of the advertising campaign, between 30 ^th January and 9 ^th February 2007.

1.6 The SOS is a monthly omnibus survey conducted amongst a sample of around 1,000 adults in Scotland. For the January 2008 wave, 1,012 interviews were achieved. This sample was representative of the adult population in terms of sex, age, employment status and socio-economic group ( SEG) ¹. The sample covered 42 constituencies throughout Scotland, with sampling points selected to be representative in terms of geographical location and party of current Member of the Scottish Parliament. The SOS uses a quota sampling methodology and interviewers use a 'random route' technique within each sampling point to select addresses. Only one interview per household is permitted. Furthermore, the achieved sample is weighted ² at each wave to ensure that it represents Scotland's population and is consistent between waves to enable true comparison. Table 1.1 outlines the composition of the sample for the SOS in January 2008.

Table 1.1: Sample profile

Base: All respondents (1012)

1.7 The SOS is conducted using CAPI, allowing respondents to complete sensitive sections of the questionnaire such as attitudes to and experience of domestic abuse confidentially. The respondents type their answers straight onto the laptop computer, meaning no verbal or visual evidence of their views or experiences are available to the interviewer. This level of perceived confidentiality results in a more complete and accurate measure of true public opinion. The CAPI methodology also allows the interviewer to play TV and radio adverts in full, thus ensuring that a reliable measure of advertising awareness is obtained.

1.8 A copy of the questionnaire used in the survey is appended.

1.9 Significant results ³ are referred to in the text where appropriate.

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