Family Constellation 1987/88

Description of the family atmosphere of young adults in Aachen in
thinking back on childhood and youth.

Topics: number of siblings; position in sibling sequence; city size
and residential status during childhood; one´s own room or person, with
whom the room was shared; preferred playmates and places to play as
well as information on sex und age of playmates; most important
reference person in childhood; frequency of watching television as well
as persons present; most important reasons for not watching television;
most important reasons to enjoy attending kindertarden or to refuse to
attend kindergarten; most important problems in attending elementary
school and in the secondary level; favorite subjects at end of time in
school; self-classification of school achievements during the last year
of school; interest of parents in school development; age at important
phases in life and events; age at leaving parental home; reason to
leave; current marital status and year of marriage or divorce and year
of death of partner; duration of living together before marriage; firm
partner and duration of being together with this partner; leisure
preferences and leisure partner; current and earlier club memberships;
memberships in associations, organizations, parties and trade unions;
classification as passive or active member; offices held;
self-classification on a top-bottom scale; importance of areas of life
and selected occupational characteristics; attitude to employment of
women and the duty of the woman in the family and in raising children;
significance of family and attitude to marriage; ideal number of
children; desire for children; reasons for the desire for children or
reasons not to want to have children; age and sex of one´s own
children; psychological characterization of each individual child;
reasons for a single child; advantage or disadvantage of being a single
child; type of problems and concerns with the children; major problem
child; social relations; number of friends of respondent in
neighborhood, at work and since childhood; sex of best friend; length
of this friendship; relatives living in the same household and with
whom the closest contact exists; most important person to confide in;
assistance; persons who can be called on for favors; ability to
establish contacts; frequency of social occasions; frequency of
conversation about private things and desire for a person to confide
in; psychological self-characterization; information on education and
occupational position; self-assessment of social class.

Relative to the parents of the persons interviewed the following
questions were posed: year of birth and perhaps year of death of
parents; step-parents or foster parents; times and reasons for absence
from parental home during childhood; school degree and vocational
certificate of parents; employment of mother and of father during
childhood; professional position of father during youth; age of
respondent at separation of parents; living together with one parent
and emotional reaction to separation of parents.

Relative to the siblings of the persons interviewed the following
information was obtained: detailed demographic information on siblings;
siblings´ number of children; length of siblings´ belonging to parental
household; professional position; detailed information on emotional
relationship to siblings; assumed importance of areas of life for the
individual siblings; characterization of current relationship of the
siblings among one another and during childhood; feeling of
discrimination compared to a sibling; sibling with greatest closeness
to father and to mother currently and at the time; detailed
psychological and factual characterization of family life in parental
home during respondent´s time in school.

Interviewer rating: number of contact attempts; presence of third
persons during interview and their relationship to person interviewed;
intervention of others in the interview; reliability and willingness of
respondent to cooperate; length of interview; date of interview.