Data editing and management: Back-coding of other sports

Nonetheless, there were still activities which pupils had participated in over the previous seven days which were not included in the list of activities, or which they failed to identify within the list.

Therefore, the online questionnaire offered a space for respondents to record other activities which they participated in over the previous seven days, and to provide details on the frequency, duration and intensity of each activity.

For this data to feed into the main data set, these needed to be coded into the categories of activities.

These categories included those provided on the questionnaire as well as additional categories for activities which were mentioned but not in the original list.

Each respondent could mention up to four other activities.

In total, this coding scheme contained around 100 different activities. As done for the first time in academic year 2023-24 (Year 7), activities which are mainly done by children with a disability were backcoded (e.g. hydro/hydrotherapy) in order to monitor the numbers in the data.

They were not included as separate activities in final derived variables but were included in existing composite activities. The code frame also included a code for ineligible activities such as singing or Brownies to allow any time recorded against those to be excluded from the derived variables on participation.

All ‘other’ responses were manually coded against this code list and then checked for consistency. Where possible, comparability with the approach taken to the Active Lives Adult Survey coding was sought.

At the end of the process, all ‘other’ answers had been assigned an activity code, which could then be used in the derivation of the participation and composite variables. The coded data was then merged back into the main dataset.

To do this, the data was pulled into an SPSS file, then matched back onto the core data by serial number. The serial number was unique to each respondent, thereby ensuring that cases were matched back correctly.

The derived variables were only created once the coded other answers had been included back into the dataset. This means derived variables include all eligible activities, whether originally listed in the questionnaire or coded from other answers.

The full list of activities is provided in the User Guide and Code Book which accompany the dataset.

Responses to these other answers were reviewed and either back-coded into the original categories, coded into a new valid category or coded into an invalid category which means their answers would be excluded from further analysis.

For example, when asked about sports-related volunteering, answers such as ‘I helped my mother lay the table’ were treated as invalid.

For the gender question, answers which described their gender identity in a non-binary way were coded as ‘non-binary’ or ‘prefer to self-describe’ depending on their answer.

Answers which clarified that boy or girl was the intended answer were back-coded to boy or girl. In some cases, the description given did not appear to describe a genuine gender identity.

Answers of inanimate objects, food items or animals were coded as ‘uncodeable’.

Other answers were back-coded into existing categories, coded into new categories or left in 'other'.