Study
Generations and Gender Survey Germany Wave 1 & Wave 2
enGGS Germany Wave 1 & Wave 2
enFederal Institute for Population Research
enThe Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) provides micro-level data with the aim of significantly improving the knowledge base for social science and policymaking in Europe and developed countries elsewhere. In Europe 2020, the European Union develops a strategy "to help us come out stronger from the crisis and turn the EU into a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion". The economic crisis affects not only day-to-day decisions, but also fundamental choices at all stages of people's lives: marriage and childbearing, the combination of employment and caring responsibilities for the young and the old, retirement, housing, and ageing well. The GGS has been developed to provide scientists with high-quality data to contribute scientifically grounded answers to these key policy questions. Survey content focuses on intergenerational and gender relations between people, expressed in care arrangements and the organization of paid and unpaid work. Key feature of the survey are:
- Cross-national comparability. In each country data is collected on the basis of a common international questionnaire and guidelines about the methodology. Data processing includes central harmonization of national datasets.
- A broad age range. It includes respondents between the ages of 18 and 80.
- A longitudinal design. It has a panel design, collecting information on the same persons at three-year intervals.
- A large sample size. It has an average of 9,000 respondents per country at Wave 1.
- A theory-driven and multidisciplinary questionnaire. It provides data for policy relevant research by demographers, economists, sociologists, social policy researchers, social psychologists and epidemiologists. The questionnaire is inspired by the theory of planned behavior.
- Possibility to combine the survey data with macro data provided by the GGP Contextual Database. This combination enables analyses of individuals and families in their cultural, economic, political, social and policy contexts.
PDF Documentation
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Generations and Gender Survey Germany Wave 1 & Wave 2 - Documentation en-GB |
Related Materials
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Website of the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) - Pages on German GGS en |
Related Materials
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Germany_Questionnaire&FieldReport_W1_de en |
Related Materials
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Germany_Questionnaire&FieldReport_W2_de en |
Related References
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German country presentations at the GGP International Working Group Meetings en |
Related References
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Technical papers - Online link en |
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Generations and Gender Survey. Documentation of the first wave in Germany en |
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Generations and Gender Survey. Documentation of the Second Wave of the Main Survey in Germany en |
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Reliability of Retrospective Event Histories within the German Generations and Gender Survey en |
Coverage
Partnership
Transition to adulthood
Work-family balance
Gender relations
Intergenerational exchanges
Informal and formal care
Well-being and health
Grandparenthood
Economic activity
Retirement
Whole Germany.
enFunding
Data
Data Collection
Method: Face-to-Face (personal interview) Technique: Computer-Assisted (CAPI)
enWAVE 1 ACTIONS
Dealing with nonresponse 1.1 Screening: No. 1.2 Refusal conversion: No specific training for this project, only general training 1.3 Incentives: Yes, lottery ticket amounting to 10 €.
Tracking of sampled units 2.1 Respondent contact information: Yes, adresses (no email-adresses) of the respondent were collected. The adresses are only known by TNS-Infratest. 2.2 Other contact information: DK 2.3 Cards: A "thank-you-letter" and birthday- and holiday cards were sent to all the respondents (planned frequency of contacts with the respondents between the two waves: 3). Furthermore, a brochure with results of Wave 1 was sent.
2.4 Additional surveys: No 2.5 Administrative records: NA
WAVE 2 ACTIONS
Dealing with nonresponse 1.1 Screening: Yes. The sending of letters between the two waves provided a chance to check for potentially changing addresses on a yearly basis. In addition to annual contacts, enquiries were also made to the residents’ registration offices with regard to those individuals where our letters were returned by the post office and where the ensuing postal enquiries did not provide a valid address. 1.2 Refusal conversion: DK 1.3 Incentives: In order to achieve as high a response rate as possible, the respondents who had given an interview received as an incentive a ticket for the ARD television lottery by post following their participation.
Tracking of sampled units 2.1 Respondent contact information: Yes, adresses (no email-adresses) of the respondent were collected. The adresses are only known by TNS-Infratest. 2.2 Other contact information: DK 2.3 Cards: Regular panel maintenance was carried out in the interim period by TNS Infratest. A "thank-you-letter" and birthday- and holiday cards were sent to all the respondents willing to be re-contacted. Also the so called GGP-Journal in the first 2 years (end of 2005 and 2006) was sent. Two letters announcement of the beginning of the next wave at the end of 2007 and in 2008. 2.4 Additional surveys: No 2.5 Administrative records: Yes (Einwohnermeldeamt) A field-work time of three months from mid-September 2008 to mid-December 2008 had originally been planned. Because only n=3,018 interviews that had been carried out by the end of December and because of a relatively promising share among those who were not reached, TNS Infratest Sozialforschung decided to invest in additional, unplanned post-processing. A total of n=3,285 questionnaires had been carried out by the end of March 2009.
WAVE 1 DATA COLLECTION
Interviewers 1.1 Total number of interviewers: 528. 1.2 Number of interviewers in the field: NA 1.3 Network organization: Centralized network with 6 regions being coordinated from TNS infratest. Loca field coordinators were responsible for the fieldwork conducted within the region. 1.4 Working arrangement of interviewers: Part time. 1.5 Payment of interviewers: Paid per interview (succesful contact).
Interviewer training: 2.1 General interviewing: Not for this project but in general with training materials distributed by central network and training conducted locally by field coordinators. 2.2 Survey specific: Yes, by sending written interviewer instruction before fieldwork started. 2.3 Length: 1 hour. 2.4 Control of performance: For randomly selected 10% of the interviews postcards with some questions about fieldwork (e.g. length of interview) were sent to the respondent. In case of questionable interviews the whole work (100%) of the interviewer was controlled. 2.5 Interviewer survey: No.
Contact protocols 3.1 Advance letter: No. 3.2 Cold contacts: Face-to-face. 3.3 Scheduling / scattering: Yes, interviewers were entitled to scatter contact attempts by making sure that more than 50% of contact attempts were in the afternoon of week-days or on week-ends. 3.4 Contact history: No. 3.5 Min number of contacts: 4. 2.6 Max number of contacts: No.
Questionnaire localization 4.1 Validation: No. 4.2 Pre-test: One pre-test carried out using CAPI version of the questionnaire in winter 2004/05 (115 respondents). Country-specific response catagories were used for questions on e.g., education and occupation. 6 additional country-specific questions were added as compare to the harmonised questionnaire. These questins concern family policy measures, fertility intentions and abortion. 4.3 Length of interview: Average length of interview: 57 minutes, with wide range (minimum 27 minutes, maximum 164 minutes) according to the composition of the household and the biography of the respondent.
WAVE 2 DATA COLLECTION
Interviewers 1.1 Total number of interviewers: 404. 1.2 Number of interviewers in the field: DK 1.3 Network organization: Centralized network coordinated from TNS infratest. 1.4 Working arrangement of interviewers: Interviewers deployment followed the principle that the same interviewers were deployed again for the follow-up questionnaire wherever this was possible and meaningful. All in all, the same interviewer as in 2005 was only deployed with somewhat more than half the respondents.
Interviewer training: DK
Contact protocols 3.1 Advance letter: Yes - shortly before starting the fieldwork in 2008 3.2 Cold contacts: NO. 3.3 Scheduling / scattering: DK 3.4 Contact history: DK 3.5 Min number of contacts: DK 2.6 Max number of contacts: DK
Questionnaire localization 4.1 Validation: No. 4.2 Pre-test: CAPI questionnaire was tested in the pilot which was carried out in July 2008 on 31 respondents. 4.3 Length of interview: Average length of interview: 59 minutes , with wide range (minimum 32 minutes, maximum 107 minutes) according to the composition of the household and the biography of the respondent.
Methodology
Panel
enWAVE 1 SAMPLING PROCEDURE
Sampling frame 1.1 Type of frame: So-called ADM-Master sample (as at December 2002), which divides Germany on the basis of GIS in 53,000 sample-points. 1.2 Frame coverage: 1.3 Frame size: 1.4 Level of units available:
Sampling method 2.1 Sampling method type: Random route survey according to the ADM design: 1) all municipalities of the survey territory are divided into layers by regional criteria (Laender, administrative districts, municipality types (population size)) - those sample points are sub-divided proportionately to the number of households in the layers (cells); with the aid of a geographical information system (GIS) streets are roughly sub-divided into 53,000 areas; The sample points defined by these means are exclusively at the disposal of the ADM member institutes in the form of the so-called ADM sample networks; total of 1,475 sample points were selected in this first step; 2) household addresses needed for the sample were collected by random selection; interviewers deployed are set a starting address which can be defined per sample point and using a precisely-defined route; 3) the interviewers were obliged to contact one target household and to carry out an interview if a respondent from the defined population had his/her first place of residence there; if several persons lived in the household belonging to the population, the interviewer identified the respondents who were to be asked on a strictly random basis aid of a systematic selection key (Kish selection grid). 2.2 Sampling stage definition
- PSU: Sample points.
- SSU: Adresses per point.
- TSU: NA 2.3 Sampling stage size
- PSU: 1.,475 sample-points.
- SSU: 14 adresses per point (=gross estimate 20,650).
- TSU: NA 2.4 Unit selection: NA 2.5 Final stage unit selection: NA 2.6 Within Household unit selection: The interviewers were obliged to contact one target household and to carry out an interview if a respondent from the defined population had his/her first place of residence there; if several persons lived in the household belonging to the population, the interviewer identified the respondents who were to be asked on a strictly random basis aid of a systematic selection key (Kish selection grid). 2.7 Stratification: NA 2.8 Sample size: NA
- Starting size sample: 18,123.
- Aimed total size at Wave 1: 10,017.
- Aimed total size at Wave 3: 2.9 Estimated Non-response
- Initial non-response: 8,079.
- Yearly attrition: Wave 1 to wave 2 around 2/3 (67%).
- Non response measures: None.
- Within household non-responses measures: NA
WAVE 2 SAMPLING PROCEDURE: same population than Wave 1 who had agreed to be re-contacted, i.e. n=6,409 respondents.
enData Processing
Extra
Appears Within
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Projects
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Series
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GGS country data files en-GB
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Germany en
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Information
- StudyNumber
- GGS.W1.W2.14
History
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