UTSA survey says locals support more spending for troops

(Dec. 9, 2003)--A recent UTSA survey, San Antonio Survey 2003 (SAS 2003), revealed 54.2 percent of San Antonio residents either strongly agreed or agreed with the White House plan to spend more money to support U.S. troops in Iraq.

Slightly more than 42 percent of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the Bush administration's plan and 4.2 percent indicated they were uncertain.

"This finding probably reflects a combination of support for the president's attempts to stabilize Iraq with concerns about the state of the U.S. economy," said Professor Juanita Firestone, the principal investigator of the survey.

Responses were significantly different according to gender, race or ethnicity, party identification and age level. Slightly more than sixty percent of male respondents, for example, either strongly agreed or agreed with the White House decision to spend more money in Iraq, while only slightly more than a majority (52 percent) of the female respondents shared the same view.

Additionally, nearly three in four (74 percent) Anglo respondents either strongly agreed or agreed with the administration's decision, while only 46 percent of Hispanic respondents, 28 percent of the African Americans and 55 percent of other racial/ethnic groups held the same view.

Eighty-two percent of the Anglo respondents, for example, either strongly agreed or agreed with the need for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq until the country is stable. In contrast, roughly 55 percent of the both the Hispanic (55.7 percent) and other (54.7 percent) ethnic/racial respondents shared the same view as their Anglo counterparts, while only 39.1 percent of African American respondents held the same view.

SAS 2003 is an annual survey conducted by UTSA undergraduate and graduate students in the combined research methods courses of sociology, criminal justice, kinesiology and public administration, in conjunction with the UTSA Culture and Policy Institute.

The survey provides research methods students experience in survey research as well as an opportunity to measure the attitudes and perceptions of San Antonians on important topics of the day. SAS 2003 was conducted October 12-28.

SAS 2003 data are based on a random probability sample of individuals with telephones and consist of 559 respondents from the Bexar County metropolitan area. A split sample design produced 423 completed responses from a random sample of individuals in Bexar County, and an additional 136 respondents living on San Antonio's West Side. The standard error for the entire sample, including the additional sample from the West Side, is +/- 4.1 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.

Juanita Firestone, professor of sociology, is the principal investigator, and Richard Harris, professor of sociology, and Arturo Vega, associate professor of public administration, are co-investigators.

For more information, contact Juanita Firestone at 210-458-5601, Richard Harris at 210-458-5609 or Arturo Vega at 210-458-2619.

--Stephanie Mota