Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS): national overview 2018

Methods and Notes on Interpretation

For full details of the methodology, including changes to the questionnaire, please see the accompanying SALSUS 2018 Technical Report.

SALSUS is a self-completion survey administered by teachers in a mixed ability class, under exam conditions. 

Schools were given the choice to complete the survey either online or on paper.

All local authority and independent schools in Scotland were eligible for inclusion in the sample, with the exception of special schools. A random, nationally representative sample of S2 and S4 pupils was drawn, with classes as the primary sampling unit. 

Fieldwork was undertaken between October 2018 and April 2019. In total (including those schools who took part in Realigning Children’s Services Survey), 12,558 pupils in S2 and 10,807 pupils in S4 took part in the survey.

Data was weighted by local authority, age, sex, school sector (state/independent), school denomination and by urban/rural classification.

Notes:

• When differences between estimates are specifically commented on, these differences are statistically significant at the 95% level.
• Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding. Rounding can also cause slight discrepancies between the sum of reported percentages and the actual percentage if combined. For example, if 40% (40.4%) of 15 year olds were very confident and 47% (47.4%) were fairly confident that they have the information they need to make the right choices about their health and wellbeing, it would be reported that 88% (87.8%) were confident. 
• Some pupils did not answer each question. Where answers are missing, these have been excluded from analyses, hence charts and tables that describe the same population may have varying bases.
• Throughout the report pupils in S2 are referred to as ‘13 year olds’ and S4 pupils are referred to as ’15 year olds’ for ease. It should be borne in mind that some pupils within these categories may be slightly older or younger.
• While there are associations between many of the behaviours explored in this report, conclusions about causality cannot be drawn.