Success in life and interpretation of that success in early adulthood (Gymnasiasten-Studie, Third wave)

Success in life and its interpretation in early adulthood (Gymnasiasten-Studie, Third wave)

Third survey wave, 13 years after the second wave and 28 years after the initial survey. The former High School students are now 43 years old. They are asked about their private and occupational life as well as their attitudes. The data set contains information of all three waves.

Topics: 1. Education: highest educational degree; time received highest degree; school success; type of student; duration of all school stages; net time of school education; duration of the first school stage and further stages.

2. Vocational training and study: vocational training and duration of all included stages; success at the vocational college; pre studies; main studies; subjects studied; additional studies; progress of studies; changed study goals; stages during studying; time of last studies; enjoyed studying; financial source during studies; extension of studies due to work; number of extended semesters; similarities of studies and work; work experience; professional network; major subject studied; entry into professional life.

3. Other stages of life course: working stages; marriage and parenthood; leisure; job; breaks during life course; military or community service.

4. Occupational life: career overview; career expectations; career evaluation; reasons for changing the job; changed job within company; occupational title and position (ISCO 68 and ISCO 88); profession’s prestige (Treiman and Wegener); starting and final salary; secondary employments: title of secondary employment (ISCO 68 and ISCO 88); beginning and ending of each secondary employment; gross hourly wage; weekly hours of work.

5. Partner: sex; age; education; highest educational degree; vocational training; father’s position; employment; net monthly wage; occupational position (ISCO 68 and ISCO 88); profession’s prestige (Treiman and Wegener); occupation in public service.

6. Children: sex; day of birth; type of school; aspiration of type of school; current school attending; highest school degree; end of school career; care taker during early years of childhood.

7. Household: time of moving out of parent’s household; time of starting first own household.

8. Parents: year of death; year of separation or divorce; self-employment of father; father’s education; month and year of parent’s first shared household.

9. Starting one’s family: start of relationship and time of first shared household; marriage plans; church wedding; time of marriage and separation; kind of separation; time of divorce; wish for children 1984; educational aspiration for children (1984 and 1997); importance of children’s societal position; disappointment about children’s social decline; attitudes towards family (1984 and 1997); legitimation of marriage; self-assessment as adolescent respectively adult at the age of 30 (1984).

10. Self-evaluation of life course: evaluation of biography and wrong decisions made; meaningful events in life (1984 and 1997); personal mentor in life (1984 and 1997); overall and personal attribution of success (1984 and 1997); importance of diligence, luck, ancestry and talent; people who helped becoming the kind of person.

11. Social identification: social class affiliation; assessment of personal lifestyle; peer group; assessment of belonging to the elite; attitudes towards work; attitudes towards society; evaluation of equal opportunities.

12. Religion: religious questions and questions about the meaning of life (1984 and 1997); denomination (1984 and 1997); year of leaving church; earlier denomination; change of denomination; year of change of denomination; frequency of going to church (1984 and 1997).

13. Importance of life between 1984 and 1997 (scale); overall, private and occupational satisfaction.

14. Politics: values wanted for society; post-materialism (1984/5 and 1997); voting behavior at the parliamentary elections from 1972 to 1994; participation at demonstrations in 1984; preferred parties of one’s parents in 1984.

15. Personal goals: persistent pursuance of personal goals versus flexible adaption of personal goals.

16. Demography: age; sex.

17. Interview rating: presence of others during the interview; rating of answer reliability.

Additionally coded was: duration of the interview; breaks during the interview; interruptions; respondent’s wish for information material about the research project; respondent’s agreement to participate in the next survey and approval for address storage.