Mikrocensus 1991, 2. quarter: Questions on Families

The family is currently in a state of flux. The birthrate today is much lower than in past times. The number of new marriages is declining while the number of young people who stay single increases. Many people live in extramarital life partnerships. These new trends create problems, which politics, administration and various non-governmental organisations such as family relations have to overcome. To make this possible, it is necessary to have reliable information which has been non existent up to now. There has for instance been no statistical data on the number of stepchildren although more and more children affected by their parents divorce grow up with their parents’ new partners. Only with this survey, which asks questions on the existence of parents outside the household, the gap is closed. However, the older generation is also of interest. Little is known about their families. Normally only relatives living in the same household are recorded in the statistics. Therefore, many married couples are labelled childless although their children have only moved out. This makes the question on relatives outside the interviewees’ households necessary. Information on the existence of relatives and contacts with them are also necessary to appraise in how far relatives are or can be included in the care of the increasing number of elderly people. The special program consists of 4 parts: 1. questions on the existence of biological relatives (B 22 and B 23: to all persons) 2. questions on the birth of children (B 24 and B 25: to women over 15 B 26 to B 28: to women between 20 and 40) 3. questions on the moving out from the parents’ household (B 29 and B 30: to all persons between 15 and 60) 4. questions on marriage and divorce (B 31 to B 35: to all married, divorced and widowed persons between 15 and 60)

当前家庭结构正处于动态转型阶段。当下的出生率远低于过往时期，新婚登记数量持续下滑，而适龄未婚青年群体规模却不断扩大，不少民众选择建立非婚同居伴侣关系。这些新兴趋势引发了诸多亟待解决的社会问题，亟需政治治理、行政部门以及诸如家庭关系领域的各类非政府组织协同应对。
为有效破解上述难题，亟需获取迄今始终缺失的可靠统计信息。举例而言，尽管越来越多因父母离异而与父母新伴侣共同生活的继子女数量不断增加，但此前始终没有关于继子女规模的官方统计数据。唯有通过本项针对家庭户外亲属存在情况设置调研问题的调查，方能填补这一数据缺口。
与此同时，老年群体的家庭状况同样值得关注。目前学界与官方统计体系对老年群体的家庭情况知之甚少——常规统计仅会记录同一家庭户内的亲属信息，这便导致诸多子女已独立离家的已婚夫妇被误归类为“无子女家庭”。因此，增设关于受访者家庭之外亲属情况的调研问题实属必要。此外，要评估亲属能够或已经在照料日益增长的老年群体中发挥多大作用，同样需要掌握亲属存在情况及其日常联系的相关信息。
本专项调研共分为四个模块：
1. 亲生亲属存在情况相关问题（B22与B23题：面向所有受访者）
2. 子女生育相关问题（B24、B25题：面向15岁以上女性；B26至B28题：面向20至40岁女性）
3. 离开原生家庭相关问题（B29、B30题：面向15至60岁所有受访者）
4. 婚姻与离异相关问题（B31至B35题：面向15至60岁的已婚、离异及丧偶受访者）