FReDA – A New Data Infrastructure (Also) For Research in (Family) Psychology

“view on | of science” – that was the motto of the 52nd Congress of the German Psychological Society, which took place in Hildesheim from 10-15 September 2022. The focus was on the high scientific standards of psychology in the various fields of basic and applied psychological research. In this context, Detlev Lück and Franz J. Neyer presented the project "FReDA - The German Family Demography Panel Study".

Through its large, representative sample, biannual repeated surveys, multi-actor design, cross-national comparability and the integration of many psychological scales, FReDA is an attractive source for quantitative panel data, especially for (family) psychology research. In addition, the data is available for free starting in 2022.

More than 20,000 participants per partial wave

FReDA offers (family) psychology research an excellent data foundation: For the surveys, a representative sample of 18-49-year-olds residing in Germany was pulled in 2020. They have been surveyed twice a year since April 2021. More than 20,000 people have participated in each of the previous surveys, mainly by completing online questionnaires, but also by filling out paper questionnaires sent by mail.

The questionnaires for 2021, 2024 and 2027 correspond to the internationally coordinated Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) questionnaires and thus enable cross-national comparative analyses. In addition, the pairfam sample was integrated, or rather continued, in FReDA starting in 2022. The panel can thus close a looming data gap.