A Strong Start for FReDA

Today is the day: FReDA is publishing the complete dataset from the first survey wave! As of now, the data from the three sub-waves W1R, W1A and W1B are available to researchers and can be requested via the GESIS data centre. The FReDA dataset makes it possible to carry out representative analyses of the situation and changes in family life, including family forms, family dynamics, fertility, parenthood, socialisation as well as separation and divorce in the context of e.g. the labour market, mobility and health.

Successful start with high number of participants

In Spring 2021, a probabilistic sample of 108,256 randomly selected persons between the ages of 18 and 49 who are registered in Germany was contacted to recruit panel participants for FReDA. The selected individuals were invited to participate by mail, with an incentive of €5 included in the invitation letter. Of those contacted, more than 38,000 people returned the questionnaires.

Corona forces a change in mode

The W1R recruitment wave was in the field from 7 April 2021 to 29 June 2021. This meant that the survey period coincided with the enforcement period of the amended Infection Protection Act, which ordered a "nationwide emergency brake" from 23 April 2021 to 30 June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This amendment included, among other things, stricter contact bans. As a result, the originally planned use of interviewers was not possible. Instead, the interviews were conducted in self-administered mode, either web-based (CAWI/web) or in paper form (PAPI/mail) by infas Institute for Applied Social Science. Since wave W2 in 2022, the FReDA team at GESIS has taken over all regular data collection and panel maintenance tasks.

More than 26,000 people become panellists

In W1R, a total of 38,583 questionnaires were returned, of which 37,777 were included in the final sample; 30,198 respondents in the final sample participated online and 7,579 respondents participated by mail. A total of 26,529 (70.23%) of the final sample gave their consent to the panel and were included in the further invitation process for FReDA W1A. A further 196 cases who gave their consent to participate in the panel but were not included in the final sample were also considered in the further invitation process.

Table: Panel consent by participation mode

Total 37,777 => 100%
Yes 70.23%
No 27.74%
Missing 2.03%

Web-based 30,198 => 79.94%
Yes 73.98%
No 24.92%
Missing 1.11%

Paper-based 7,579 => 20.06%
Yes 55.28%
No 39.00%
Missing 5.71%

Since the primary aim of the W1R questionnaire was to recruit panellists for the FReDA study, the questionnaire was designed to be short and easy to complete. Respondents were asked to answer a total of 36 questions, which took about 10 minutes on average. Respondents who gave their consent to participate in future waves of the survey eventually became members of the panel.

Majority of respondents favour CAWI

26,725 people gave their consent to participate in W1R. Invitations for W1A were sent to these people on 7 July 2021. About 11 weeks later, on 22 September 2021, the field for W1A was closed.

Of the 26,725 panellists invited to participate in W1A, a total of 22,396 returned a questionnaire. Of these, 22,048 were included in the final sample, which consists of 18,861 (85.55%) web-based and 3,187 (14.45%) paper-based cases.

Compared to the W1R questionnaire, the W1A questionnaire was longer and more complex. On average, the web-based questionnaire took about 23 minutes to complete.

Focus on partnership and children

A large part of the W1A questionnaire concerns the partnerships as well as possible children of the respondents. Therefore, respondents were asked to provide information about their children, both biological and adopted or stepchildren. The questions about the respondents' partner referred to both the current partnership and previous partnerships. In addition to the socio-demographic data of the partners, the duration of the partnership and the type of cohabitation were also asked about. The questionnaire thus makes it possible to trace the respondents’ partnership history.

In this context, it is particularly exciting that FReDA is a multi-actor study that interviews both the anchors and their partners in each wave. The data from the partners of our panellists who were interviewed in W1A are currently being processed by GESIS and will be available to researchers in the near future. This will then make dyadic analyses of partnerships possible.

W1B still in the field in 2021

On 4 November 2021, the field phase of W1B began with the mailing of invitations to a total of 26,625 panellists. Between sub-waves W1A and W1B, the number of participants decreased by 100 cases, as people had withdrawn their consent to join the panel, moved abroad or passed away. The W1B field was closed on 31 January 2022.

In W1B, a total of 20,609 respondents returned a completed questionnaire, of which 20,220 were included in the final sample. The final sample consists of 17,289 (85.50%) respondents who participated online and 2,931 (14.50%) who participated by mail.

The W1B questionnaire is about the same length as the W1A questionnaire. On average, respondents needed 30 minutes to complete the web-based questionnaire.

FReDA also asks about generational relations

A large part of the W1B questionnaire dealt with the respondents’ parents, background and childhood. This part includes (retrospective) questions on socio-demographics, family history, occupation and employment of the respondents' parents, but also on the generational relationship between the respondents and their parents. In addition, respondents were asked about the number of siblings they had and the circumstances of their childhood, e.g. where they lived during childhood or whether they grew up with both parents or only with their father or mother. This section was followed by questions about the respondents' grandparents and grandchildren, if applicable.

Dataset also contains paradata

The datasets of the first FReDA wave contain not only the responses from the interviews, but also the paradata – i.e. data on the survey process – of each sub-wave. While general paradata such as mode, contact strategy or date of the interview can be taken from the Scientific Use Files (SUF), more detailed paradata from the web-based surveys, such as timestamps, are published in an additional dataset specifically for paradata. Each sub-wave has its own paradata dataset.

The W1R paradata are an integral part of the FReDA data offer and will be available to every data user who receives access to the FReDA data. The W1A and W1B paradata, however, will only be available with the next data release in the second half of 2023.