DOI: 10.3886/icpsr26948
title: CBS News Monthly Poll, May 2009
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded May 6-12, 2009, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way Barack Obama was handling the presidency and the economy, whether they thought things in the country were on the right track, their rating of the national economy and whether they thought the economy would get better. Respondents were asked several questions about how the recession was affecting their personal lives including questions about the main way they were affected by the recession, how much the recession affected their children's lives and their communities, and whether they did any of the following things for their children in the previous six months as a result of the recession: applied for Medicaid, delayed visits to the dentist, doctor, or a specialist, reduced or not purchased medication, or cut back on extra-curricular activities. Respondents were also asked whether it had become easier or harder to pay for things such as groceries, medical bills, their children's tuition/schooling, housing costs, and utilities in the previous six months and whether they were concerned about H1N1 or the Swine Flu virus, Barack Obama's Supreme Court Justice nominations, health care insurance, how the federal government should use taxpayer's money, and job security. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, marital status, education level, household income, political party affiliation, political philosophy, perceived social class, religious preference, whether the respondent considered themselves to be a born-again Christian, and voter registration status and participation history.
description: The data contain weight variables that should be used in analyzing the data. According to the CBS News Web site, the data were weighted to match the United States Census Bureau breakdowns on age, sex, race, education, and region of the country. The data were also adjusted for the fact that people who share a telephone with others have less chance to be contacted than people who live alone and have their own telephones, and that households with more than one telephone number have more chances to be called than households with only one telephone number.
description: A variation of random-digit dialing using primary sampling units (PSUs) was employed, consisting of blocks of 100 telephone numbers identical through the eighth digit and stratified by geographic region, area code, and size of place. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard and land-lines and cell phones. Within households, respondents were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and modified by Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1963).
description: Datasets: DS1: CBS News Monthly Poll, May 2009
description: Persons aged 18 years and older living in households with telephones in the United States.
description: telephone interviewThe data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The CASEID variable was reformatted in order to make it an unique identifier.A truncated value label in the variable EDUC was corrected.This data collection was produced by CBS News, New York, NY.