Early Careers and Starting a Family: Life Courses of the 1971 Birth Cohorts in East and West Germany (Life History Study LV-Panel 71)

The study is the most recent subproject of the German Life History Study. It follows directly on from the two previous life history surveys. In a repeat survey, the 1971-born who had participated in the 1996-1998 study ´Ostdeutsche Lebensverläufe im Transformationsprozess (LV-Ost 71)´ or in the 1998-1999 study ´Ausbildungs- und Berufsverläufen der Geburtskohorten 1964 und 1971 in Westdeutschland (LV-West 64/71)´ were interviewed again. The repeat survey was initiated because the observations of the 1971 birth cohort in these two surveys reached a maximum of 28 years of age. The focus of interest was the question of how young women and men succeed in reconciling career and family/partnership against the background of growing mobility requirements. The questionnaire programme of the repeat survey is based on that of previous life course studies. Since an important focus of the repeat survey is on examining the compatibility of partnership and family, special attention was also paid to the retrospective survey of childcare.

Topics: Residence history: information on all residence episodes, e.g. place of residence in Germany or abroad; federal state; month and year of beginning and end; current place of residence; reasons for moving away.
Children, parental leave, desire to have children: children; existing pregnancy; expected date of birth (month, year); desire for (further) children; number of desired (further) children; period up to the next child; reason for childlessness; infant suffers when the mother is gainfully employed; best care alternative when the mother is gainfully employed; ID child; sex of the child; month and year of birth of the child; relationship with child; child deceased; month and year of death of the child; willingness to answer further questions about the deceased child; always lived together with child; beginning and end of the episode lived together (month and year); child in the household; child was desired child; time planning of the child´s birth; parental leave (respondent, other person); start and end of the parental leave (month and year); further children; type of school attended; time regulation of school attendance and attendance at the day care centre; care arrangement and number of hours; amount of the monthly care costs and, if applicable, currency.

School education/further school attendance: Time regulation of school attendance; start and end of school episode (month, year); current school attendance; school in Germany or abroad; federal state or country of school; school leaving certificate or desired school leaving certificate; further school episodes.

Training and further education: type of training or further education; training institution in Germany or abroad; federal state or country of training location; type of training company; sector; time regulation or sequence of training visit or further education visit; start and end of training or further education episode; current training; total number of hours of training or further education; reasons for training; cost unit; type of completion of training; completed training or intended completion of training; further training or further education; vocational code of training.

Gainful and part-time employment: start and end of episode of gainful employment (month and year); current gainful employment; type of job search; reason for taking up the job; occupational status; training required for the activity; training corresponds to the activity; business trip at least once a month; fixed term or ABM; duration of fixed term; reason for fixed term; desire for permanent employment; type of business; business location in Germany or abroad; federal state or country in which the company is located; industry sector; company offers facilities to facilitate the reconciliation of family and work; restructuring within the company; staff reductions; agreed and actual working hours (weekly hours); minimum working hours of 12 weekly hours; reasons for termination of employment relationship; immediately thereafter permanent or temporary position with the same employer; further gainful employment; other secondary occupations; occupational code of occupational activity.

Unemployment: start and end of unemployment episode (month and year); currently unemployed; continuously registered as unemployed; continuously receiving benefits; further unemployment.

Employment history, examination and supplementary modules, professional control convictions: information on type and time (start and end) of gap activities; current gap activity; occupational perspective at last interview time; in each case end of 2000 and currently: level of monthly net earnings (if applicable, currency), type of income (if not monthly net income) and occupational perspective; professional control convictions (scale).

Childcare: start and end of the childcare episode; caregivers; changes in the care situation.

Partnerships, partner acquisition history, family control convictions: marital status; steady partnership; wish to marry; planned time of marriage; attitude to marriage (marriage norm); reasons against marriage; scale of family control convictions; start of partnership (month, year); living together with partner; time of moving together (month, year); duration of common household; partner married; time of marriage (month, year); currently married; reason for marriage; partner´s month and year of birth; partner´s origin; partner´s country of origin; partner´s highest school leaving certificate and education certificate; partner´s gainful employment during the partnership; partner´s highest professional position during the partnership; partner´s unemployment for more than three months; work distribution in the household; other partnerships; former partner: separation, divorce or death of the former partner; date of separation or death of the former partner; date of death of former partner (month, year); continuing partnership with former partner; professional code of education and professional activity of partner; highest occupational status of father and mother; lifestyle (importance of selected areas of life); scale of persistence/flexibility; trade union membership; start of union membership (month, year); party membership; start of party membership (month, year); party affiliation; household size and household composition; type of household income; net household income; state of health self-assessment; willingness to participate in panel; occupational code of parents´ occupation.

Additionally coded was:
Information on dropouts: sequence of terminations per respondent; termination in which module; reason for termination during interview; target wishes to continue interview; reason for refusal to continue interview.
Contact details: contact number; contact date; day, month, year, hour, minute of contact; interviewer number; contact result; contact information obtained by third party or target; reason for refusal of contact information.

Information about the target person: place of birth; sex; date of birth; year of last interview; status of the target person after completion of the interview; date of dispatch of the first letter; reaction of the target person to the letter; reason for non-delivery of the letter; target person has received the letter; participation in the study; agreement with tape recording of the interview; interest of the target person in study results; membership of the western cohort or the eastern cohort; termination during the interview.

General information: case number (East, West); sex; month and year of birth; month and year of the first interview; day, month and year of the interview; beginning of the interview (hour, minute); processing status of the individual modules (not completed); interview was interrupted at least once; start date and time, end date and time of the individual modules; various test modules.

Interviewer rating: quality of the life history survey and dating.