Strong interest in FReDA User Conference

Lively interest, very exciting presentations and an intensive exchange: the second International FReDA User Conference was a well-attended forum for researchers from a wide range of disciplines focussing on questions relating to family and partnership. Around 60 people from universities and colleges, national and international research institutions and socio-demographic survey institutes took the opportunity on 7 and 8 October 2024 in Mannheim to discuss the latest analyses and research findings using data from the FReDA panel or data from the German Family Panel pairfam or the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS).

The User Conference programme was packed: In addition to the keynotes by Prof Pia Schober on ‘Understanding Presistence and Change in Gender and Relationship Attitudes across Relationship and Family Transitions in Eastern and Western Europe’ and by Prof Denis Gerstorf on ‘On the Role of Historical Change for Adult Development (in Midlife)’, research papers were presented in five sessions that dealt with family demographic issues on the one hand and reflected on methodological aspects of working with the panel data on the other. In addition, the conference at the GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Mannheim was also a good opportunity to establish networks between researchers or to think about future collaborations.

Award for analysis of infidelity

The presentation ‘Understanding infidelity norms: sexual double standard, ingroup bias, or self-serving bias?’ by Dr Anna Zamberlan was recognised as a particularly successful paper at the conference. Zamberlan and her research colleagues Dr Christiane Bozoyan and Dr Claudia Schmiedeberg from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München analyse infidelity in partnerships with regard to social norms. In the pairfam surveys, around 24 per cent of interviewees reported their own infidelity, while around 30 to 35 reported their partner's infidelity. Infidelity is therefore a comparatively common phenomenon that is relevant to family sociology. It not only reduces well-being, but also causes suffering and often leads to the dissolution of the relationship. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of infidelity receives little academic attention. In her analysis, Anna Zamberlan also examines the question of whether infidelity is considered acceptable and which mechanisms can lead to its acceptance. For this exciting analysis and her convincing presentation, she received a prize of 500 euros, which was donated by the social research institute infas Institute for Applied Social Science.

The next FReDA International User Conference is planned for mid-2025. We will inform you in good time on our website and publish the Call for Abstracts.

You can download the programme of the Second FReDA International User Conference here.