Child, Occupation or Both

Situation in life and life planning of young couples.

Topics: Both partners were interviewed separately.

For the survey two different versions of the questionnaire were
produced differing insignificantly from each other in sex-specific
areas.

The following description refers to the questionnaire for women:
Length of current partnership or marriage; length of living together;
earlier relations; judgement on one´s own partnership in daily life
(scale); giving and taking in the partnership; attitude to housework
(scale); satisfaction with division of labor in the household;
associations with the term housewife (semantic differential);
self-assessment of personal role model as a woman and personal concept
of the ideal woman; judgement on role allocation of partner and
personal concept of the ideal man; assumed partner´s concept of the
ideal woman; judgement on one´s own psychological constitution (scale);
comparison of the general situation in life of men and women, couples
with or without children as well as housewives or working women;
associations with the term employment (semantic differential);
judgement on the importance of selected aspects of employment (scale);
judgement on the importance of various prerequisites for a successful
return to professional life (scale); willingness to make concessions in
selection of a job; interest in training in new employment areas;
possible duration of an interruption of professional life without
problems returning; attitude to children (semantic differential);
children or employment as the meaning of life; preferred point in time
for desire for children (scale); desire for children as topic in the
partnership; changes in attitude to the desire for children; children
as reason for the maintenance of a partnership; preferred person to
raise children after a separation; fears in connection with the birth
of a child (scale); number of children; mother model (scale); concepts
of an ideal mother; characterization and judgement on one´s own mother;
extent of employment of one´s own mother in various phases of life;
attitude to employment of mother; employment of father during one´s own
childhood; concepts of an ideal father (scale); characterization of
father; certainty of one´s own future occupational plans; residential
status and other residents; extent of employment; shift work; length of
employment; company size; time expended on the way to work or place of
training. The following questions were posed only to women with
children: number and ages of children and information on the
relationship from which they come; desire for children and desired
number of children; judgement on one´s own situation in life at birth
of children; current occupational situation; advantages and
disadvantages for a working mother in daily life at work (scale);
desired opportunities for making employment easier for mothers and
available facilities; use of leave for new parent and additional
interruption of employment after birth of children; extent of
employment and type of occupation after return to work; children as an
accident or planned; judgement on one´s own solution to the
child/occupation dilemma; expectations of partner at birth of the first
common child and his actual behavior; self-assessment as a good mother
and assessment of partner as a good father; mother role; time spent by
partner for child care and personal time expended; satisfaction with
division of tasks in child care; importance and use of selected forms
of child care outside of the family; attitude of partner to one´s own
employment; conduct of partner with problems with the children.

The following questions were posed only to non-working mothers:
reasons for leaving professional life (scale); characterization of
current situation as housewife (scale); intent and planned time of
resumption of employment; judgement on one´s own confidence regarding
return to professional life; obstacles to resumption of employment.

The following questions were posed only to women without children:
desire for children and desired number of children; reasons for
childlessness; assumed distribution of tasks for child care in the
partnership; desired extent of employment after birth of a child;
expectation of partner at birth of a child; current occupational
situation or judgement on confidence regarding finding a job after
conclusion of training; perception of working mothers in daily life at
work (scale).

Interviewer rating: weekday of interview; date of interview; length of
interview.