This study is part of a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1948. The election studies are designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. The 1958 study may be analyzed both on its own, as a cross-section survey representative of the U.S. population of voting age, and as the second wave of a panel study that started with the ANES 1956 Time Series Study (ICPSR 7214) and ended with the ANES 1960 Time Series Study (ICPSR 7216). Each respondent was interviewed only once, after the election. Respondents who had not been interviewed in 1956 were selected from dwelling units vacated by 1956 respondents (movers). The questionnaires contained both closed and open-ended questions covering a wide range of topics. In addition to general political attitudes, the study obtained information about the more specific attitudes and behaviors pertinent to the 1958 Congressional Election, like the respondents' actual vote and reasons for the vote, attitudes toward political parties and candidates, and the respondents' political history. Data were also collected on specific domestic and foreign policy issues such as government involvement in housing and public utilities, and United States aid to anti-Communist nations. The study also ascertained the financial situation of the family unit and other demographic information.

The individuals interviewed in 1958 were a representative cross-section of the voting age population living in private households in the United States. The 12 largest metropolitan areas of the United States were drawn with certainty to represent themselves. The rest of the country was divided into 54 strata. From each stratum, a primary sampling unit consisting of a county or group of counties was drawn with probability proportional to size. The selection procedure within these 66 primary sampling units ultimately yielded a sample of private households within which respondents were designated for interview by and objective procedure of selection that allowed no substitutions. An additional complexity was introduced by the fact that the 1958 study represents the second wave of a panel study initiated in 1956. Respondents from the first wave who had moved could not be re-interviewed at their original addresses. To compensate for the loss of this group, a new group was selected from the current dwellers of the same households and given double weight since the size of the new group was only half of the normal probability size. Hence the weighted N of this study is 1822, although the unweighted N is only 1450.

ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Standardized missing values.; Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..

telephone interview For further information please see the ANES Data Center Web site.

United States citizens 18 years of age or older. Smallest Geographic Unit: county

American National Election Study (ANES) Series

Weight required: V580003

Datasets: DS1: Dataset