Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS)

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: 2018

Reference period of change - 2024/2025

The SSPPS 2024 is the second cycle of this survey, while the first cycle took place in 2018. This second cycle was originally planned for 2023 and had to be postponed due to the impact of the pandemic.

SSPPS 2024 combines three previous surveys that collected information about personal experiences with unwanted behaviours and violence in various settings. Questions were drawn from the 2018 SSPPS, the 2019 Survey on Individual Safety in the Postsecondary Student Population (SISPSP), and the 2020 Survey on Sexual Misconduct at Work (SSMW).Questions specific to unwanted sexual behaviours and sexual assault that happened in a work-related context or a school-related context were brought in from SSMW and SISPSP. New behaviour questions, sexual assault questions, and attitudes modules have been incorporated.

Existing SSPPS questions on unwanted sexual behaviours / sexual assault were expanded.

Some sensitive content was removed from the 2018 survey, including: some questions on lifetime intimate partner violence (IPV), questions on harsh parenting, questions on experiences of abuse in childhood, various follow-up questions from the physical assault, sexual assault, and IPV modules; and others.

Other questions were modified in format to make them more efficient from a time use perspective.