General methodical procedure for trend surveys based on annually repeated cross-sectional surveys. The questionnaire consists of three parts:
a) Questions asked annually,
(b) questions raised at irregular intervals,
c) and new questions.
Questions on views on terrorism and a compulsory orientation day for women were raised in 2018 for the first time. For this reason, a quantitative pretest was carried out and it was of interest whether the respondents were able to answer the questions. Following the pretest, the question formulations were optimized. Finally, to check the comprehensibility of all questions and interviewing before the field phase, test interviews were conducted in the different national languages. The questionnaires were designed in German and then translated into French and Italian. The Helvetic question formulations were deliberately chosen, as the interviews in German-speaking Switzerland were mostly conducted in Swiss-German (mouth type).
The opinions of the 1209 respondents may have been influenced by the following events:
• The armed conflict in Syria.
• The discussion concerning the withdrawal of Great Britain from the European
Union (Brexit).
• The differences between the EU and Switzerland concerning the continuation of
the Framework Agreement between Switzerland and the EU.
• The introduction of the reform program Armed Forces Development (AFD) on
1 January, 2018, and the beginning of the recruit schools on 15 January, 2018.
• The subsidiary WEF deployment of the Swiss Armed Forces for the benefit of the
civil authorities of the Canton of Graubünden in Davos and the visit of U.S.
president Donald Trump.
