Change and Development of Forms of Family Life in West Germany (Survey of Families)

Current partner relations and partner relation in the course of one´s
life up to now. Family relations in the framework of the social
network. Education and employment biography.

Topics: 1. Children: number of siblings; growing up with both parents
or with a single parent; divorced parents in childhood; education and
occupational training of father and mother; educational goals; number
of children or desire for children; detailed information on date of
birth, sex, status, place of stay, school attendance, vocational
training, attendance at a kindergarten and child care after school for
every individual child; desired number of children; living together
with a partner; living separately; right to support or personal
obligations to pay; regularity of payments deposited.

2. Partner biography: steady partnership; detailed information for
every partnership regarding: time of getting to know each other, start
of actual partnership, start of living together in a residence, number
of common children, age difference from partner, marital status and
school degree of partner, differences in religious denomination and
citizenship, marriage and continued existence of partner relation, time
of termination of the relation.

3. Questions on social net: person to confide in; reference person;
description of the persons of the social network; persons with whom
regular common meals are taken and to whom emotional relations exist;
persons from whom financial support is received or to whom given;
leisure partner; secondary residence; sex, type of relation, distance
to residence and frequency of contact with persons of one´s social
surroundings; number of siblings, number of grandchildren as well as
number of grandparents on the part of respondent and for spouse.

4. School, training and employment: school degree and year of school
degree; occupational training; time of first taking up an occupational
activity and if appropriate ending occupational activity; number of
hours each week at the beginning of employment life and change in
number of hours each week; detailed information on reason and time
period of interruptions of employment; current employment status;
search for employment; arrangement of working hours; flextime; extent
of self-determination in work or working according to instructions;
limited work contract; most important criteria and demands of an
occupation; attitude to extent of employment of men and women in
various life cycles or family stages; information on employment status,
occupational position and arrangement of working hours of
partner/spouse; distribution of tasks in household; employment of
cleaning help; decision distribution with selected tasks in one´s
family; characterization of partner relation (scale); attitude to
marriage (scale); estimated weekly effort for activities for family and
household; attitude to children (scale); religiousness;
postmaterialism; frequency of selected leisure activities; residential
status; living in a group sharing a residence; living space; number of
rooms; number of children´s rooms; information on infrastructure
available in one´s residential area; use of these infrastructure
facilities; presence and use of facilities for children in the
immediate vicinity of one´s residence; sources of income of household;
rights to support for the children; regularity of payments for the
child; occurrence of burdensome events and problems in the last 12
months and the stress perceived from this; looking after persons in
need of care in household; family relation with this person and number
of hours expended weekly for this; support with care from social
services; self-assessment of condition of health; sex; age in years and
months.

After conclusion of the survey a questionnaire on the use of
contraceptives was distributed to be filled out in writing: regular use
of contraceptives; partner deciding on the use of contraceptives;
reasons for non-use of contraceptives.

Also encoded was: information on reasons for refusal to respond; place
of interview; date of interview.