DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04300
title: AsiaBarometer, 2003
title: Archival Version

description: The AsiaBarometer, 2003 represents a cross-national effort
to study the lives of the peoples of East, Southeast, South, and
Central Asia on physical, psychological, and sociological dimensions.
The project was designed to capture the extent to which respondents
experience the affective and cognitive qualities of life, focusing on
their assessments of their own lives as well as their relationships to
family, neighborhood, workplace, social institutions, political
institutions, and the marketplace. Attitudes toward development,
democracy, and regionalization were examined, as were the types of
goods and services desired and consumer habits. Respondents were
queried on their overall personal satisfaction as well as their
satisfaction with their friendships, family life, marriage, standard
of living, housing, household income, health, education, neighbors,
job, leisure time, public safety, the condition of the environment,
the social welfare system, and the political system. Data were
gathered on the respondents' personal priorities and those they had
for their children, as well as their level of trust in others, their
inclination to help others, and what characteristics and affiliations
they used to identify themselves. Respondents were asked to rate the
efficacy of their national governments in handling the economy,
political corruption, human rights, unemployment, crime, public
services, immigration, ethnic conflict, religious conflict, and
environmental problems. Additional questions asked whether government
officials were responsive to problems of the general population, what
type of political systems respondents favored, and the extent to which
the national government, the local government, the army, the legal
system, the police, the national legislative branch (e.g., Parliament,
Congress), the public education system, large domestic companies,
multinational companies, trade/labor unions, the media, and other
nongovernmental organizations (e.g., environmental, social advocacy
groups, nonprofit organizations) could be trusted to operate in the
best interest of society. Participants were asked which
macro-socioeconomic issues they were most concerned with and what
matters they believed the government should spend more or less
on. Respondents were polled on their level of personal involvement in
political, governmental, and community affairs, the inclusiveness of
the government, and their perspectives on the importance of political
and electoral participation. Additional questions addressed respondent
exposure to and opinions of foreign companies, peoples, governments,
and cultures. Market analysis inquiries included what products
respondents owned, planned to own in the near future, or desired to
own, as well as what consumer services they had used or would like to
use. Respondents were asked about their modes of transportation, their
current types of residence, whether or not they planned to own their
own residences, and the availability of public utilities. Respondents
were surveyed on what foreign and domestic companies they were
familiar with and which forms of media they used to obtain consumer
and political information. Background information includes age, sex,
occupation, employment status, household income, family structure,
number of people in household, number of children, education, marital
status, English proficiency, religious affiliation, and religious
participation.
description: Various forms of multistage, stratified, clustered,
 national probability sampling were used in each country
studied. Please refer to the codebook for more information.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: AsiaBarometer, 2003
description: Citizens of China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, South
Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam who were between
20 and 59 years of age.
description: face-to-face interviewPlease refer to the codebook for additional
information on sampling, interviewing, and collection modes for each
country.The name of the variable F0001 was changed to F00001 in
order to be compatible with online analysis.Value labels were
added to the variable AREA09 based on methodology documentation
provided by the principal investigator.The CASEID variable was
created for use with online analysis.