"3 Years of FReDA: Families and Partnerships in Germany and Europe"

Exciting analyses, lively discussions and an intensive scientific exchange - the first FReDA user conference from 3 to 5 July 2023 in Wiesbaden was a highly interesting forum for family demographic research.

At the conference entitled "3 Years of FReDA: Families and Partnerships in Germany and Europe", more than 20 analyses were presented that were developed with data from the first wave of the FReDA panel or with data from the partner projects pairfam or the GGS. The contributions not only presented the latest research results, but also showed the potential of the data sets used, explained methodological challenges in the analysis of panel data and presented innovative methodological approaches.

The conference was divided into six sessions:

• "Gender Ideology and Partnership"
• "Division of Household Labour"
• "COVID-19 and Mental Health / Methods"
• "Family Relations"
• "Fertility and Family Planning"
• "Arrangement of Paid Work and Care Work"

Keynotes: Overview and exciting analysis

With Prof. Dr. Anne Gauthier, Director of the "Generations and Gender Programme (GGP)", at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), and Prof. Dr. Karsten Hank, FReDA Project Manager at the University of Cologne, two extraordinarily renowned researchers could be won as keynote speakers who provided important impulses for the discussion.

In her keynote address "50 Years of family and fertility surveys: A reflection on measurement instruments and scientific discoveries", Anne Gauthier traced the development of international family panels up to the current GGS. She was able to impressively illustrate how important international surveys in particular can be for family demographic analyses.

The international composition of the scientific community at the first FReDA user conference clearly demonstrated the importance of the GGS and pairfam data - and thus the FReDA data sets in the future - for research in this context. More than 20 countries are already participating in the GGS, and many countries are currently preparing their participation. FReDA, as a German survey within the GGS, offers the optimal data basis for many international research questions. In addition, several contributions at the user conference showed how well suited the data from Germany are for exemplary analyses on family demographic questions.

Karsten Hank presented in his keynote "Assessing sexual-minority respondents' attitudes, behaviours, and outcomes: Quantitative findings from pairfam & FReDA" a very exciting analysis of attitudes and behaviours of respondents belonging to a sexual minority. The analysis explored, among other things, whether the expansion of legal rights and the recognition of sexual minorities has also reduced structural stigmatisation, stress for sexual minorities and, consequently, disadvantages in terms of health and well-being. Based on the Relationship and Family Panel (pairfam) and the Family Demographic Panel FReDA, the keynote provided an up-to-date overview of topics such as generational relationships, expectations of partnerships and parenthood, and the subjective well-being of gays and lesbians in Germany.

Conference proves potential of data sets

The findings presented at this first user conference impressively demonstrated the exciting analyses that are possible with FReDA's datasets. So far, the complete data set of the first FReDA wave has been published, and the release of the partner surveys will follow at the end of July. If you would also like to work with this data, we have summarised all the information about data access for you here.

The first FReDA user conference was integrated into the scientific conference "Turning Gold: Conference on the Occasion of BiB's 50th Anniversary", which took place simultaneously in Wiesbaden on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). More about the entire BiB conference can be found here.