Social Cohesion in Germany 2020

The Social Cohesion in Germany 2020 study was conducted by infas on behalf of the Bertelsmann Stiftung. In the survey period from February 2020 to December 2020, the resident population of the Federal Republic of Germany aged 16 and over was surveyed in telephone interviews (CATI) on the following topics: social cohesion and political attitudes, social participation, personal and social effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Respondents were selected using a multi-stage random sample from an ADM selection frame including landline and mobile phone numbers (dual-frame sample). The main survey was conducted from the beginning of February to the end of March 2020 with 3,010 people aged 16 and over. A total of 1,000 participants from the first survey who had agreed to a second interview took part in a follow-up survey from the end of May to mid-June 2020. A further 611 people were available for a third survey in December 2020. The study is part of the ´Radar social cohesion´ project.<br>Wave 1:
Social cohesion and political attitudes: Life satisfaction; feeling of connectedness with Germany, federal state, region, place of residence and with neighborhood; size of circle of friends and acquaintances; frequency of meetings with friends/acquaintances; frequency of contact with friends/acquaintances; general trust in persons; strength of trust at first meeting; trust in institutions: Strength of trust in political parties, courts, police, federal government, Bundestag and city or Agreement with various statements (The social differences in our country are fair, in Germany you are paid according to your performance, economic gains are distributed fairly in Germany today, differences in rank between people are acceptable, most people don´t care about their fellow human beings, most people treat me with respect, convinced that most people have good intentions, nowadays you can´t rely on anyone); friends whose help you could count on in case of difficulties; friends or acquaintances who would lend 1,000 euros in an emergency; social participation: Donations in the last 12 months; frequency of voluntary work; type of political participation in the last twelve months (e.g. collecting signatures for political causes, taking part in a demonstration, participating in a citizens´ initiative, etc.); opinion on events for citizen participation (necessary that they take place, significantly improve coexistence, tend to be useless, better if politicians decide alone, would certainly take part after being invited to a meeting, don´t know anything like this, politicians should also take into account the interests of non-participants); willingness to take part in an event for citizen participation if it were ensured that: citizens´ recommendations would be implemented by politicians in any case, the time commitment is only a few hours, many different people from the city or community participate, citizens have their say who are otherwise given too little consideration, if something new is really created); membership in an association or non-profit organization; holding an office or function in the association/organization; threat vs. Enrichment of life in Germany through increasing diversity; contact between different groups in the personal environment; desire for more opportunities for personal exchange between different groups, importance of contact for social cohesion in general; acceptance of different groups of people in the neighborhood (people with a different lifestyle, people with a different religion, foreigners/migrants, homosexuals, families with children, people with disabilities, rich people, poor people, young people, old people); satisfaction with various offers in the residential area (local shopping facilities, public transport, range of pubs, bars and restaurants, cultural offers such as cinema or theater, provision of kindergartens and schools, local medical care, accessibility of public administration or the town hall, accessibility of a post office and bank branch, range of clubs, speed of the Internet, quality of mobile phone reception); change in the quality of life in the residential area in recent years; feeling of safety in the residential area; area in the immediate vicinity where people do not want to walk alone at night; recognition of social rules: Problems in the neighborhood (e.g. dog excrement on the street, damaged playgrounds, disturbance of the peace, etc.); likelihood of voting in the next elections; political self-assessment left-right; party preference; optimism about the future; satisfaction with democracy; democracy is the best form of government; social cohesion in Germany is at risk; assessment of cohesion in the residential area; interest in politics; assessment of representation by politicians; agreement with various statements on political participation (dissatisfaction with the political system, it is not worth going to the polls, politicians are not interested in the interests of citizens, political parties are not for me); change in life in Germany due to globalization; personal change in life due to globalization; change in life in Germany due to digitalization; personal change in life due to digitalization; change in life in Germany due to immigration; personal change in life due to immigration; things that cause fear (terrorist attacks in Germany, xenophobia, growing proportion of Muslims, alienation due to immigration of foreigners, consequences of economic or financial crises, climate change, crime and violence, job losses in Germany due to digitalization, poverty, unemployment, living alone, illness, no control over life, getting older, bad neighborhoods).

Demography: Sex; age; household size; children; number of children; number of children under 14 and aged 14 or 15; year of moving to current place of residence; steady partnership; employment status; highest general school-leaving qualification; highest educational qualification; housing status (rental/home ownership); affiliation to a religious community; personal restrictions due to health problems or chronic illness, due to physical disability, due to personal economic circumstances, due to few opportunities for contact; receipt of transfer payments in the last twelve months; assessment of personal economic situation; net household income; net household income categorized; born in Germany; country of birth; German citizenship; other citizenship; father and mother born in Germany (migration background).

Additionally coded were: Interview number; subsample landline/mobile; number of landline telephone numbers in the household, number of mobile numbers at which the respondent can be reached personally; postal code (anonymized); district specified; district code; district or independent city (anonymized); preferred place of residence (in current place of residence or preferred in another place; preferred place of residence other place; interview date; federal state; municipality size BIK; area type; BBR municipality type new; west-east identifier; dependency index 5s unweighted and weighted, 3s unweighted; group (bbr municipality type west-east); migration background; social networks, trust in fellow human beings, acceptance of diversity, identification, trust in institutions, sense of justice, solidarity and willingness to help, recognition of social rules, social participation, social relationships, solidarity, orientation towards the common good; overall index cohesion; survey wave; weighting factor total sample (post-corona); weighting factor total sample (pre-corona); design weight (post-corona); design weight (pre-corona); economic household status; household type; socio-economic segments; general party preference, anxiety segments; survey before corona crisis/ during corona crisis; weighting factor (incl. missing regions 2017/ adjusted living arrangements 2020) summarized; filter Saxony.

Wave 2:
Current general condition; life satisfaction; effects of the corona pandemic on personal everyday life (I travel less outside the home, make phone calls or meet online instead of in person, limited personal contact with neighbors, do things from home, have to look after my children at home, have to look after other relatives, support people in the neighborhood); dealing with the current situation (very worried about their own future, worried about people in the family or close circle, cope with the situation quite well, feel a little lonely, corona pandemic puts a lot of strain on living together); employment; change in work situation due to the coronavirus (working as before the coronavirus pandemic, working entirely or predominantly from home, reducing overtime, working reduced hours, unpaid leave of absence, have been ordered to bring forward my leave, have been sent on special leave with continued payment of salary, have been made redundant); fear of the consequences of economic or financial crises, poverty, unemployment and illness); respondent or known person from the personal environment were already in ordered quarantine due to Corona; sense of attachment to the federal state, region, place of residence and neighborhood; general trust in people; strength of trust at first encounter; trust in institutions: Strength of trust in the federal government, the state government and the city or municipal administration; optimism about the future; satisfaction with democracy; social cohesion in Germany is at risk; most people do not care about their fellow human beings; the social differences in our country are fair; politicians are not interested in the citizens; the corona pandemic is primarily limiting the opportunities and possibilities of the little people; expect the corona pandemic to significantly reduce my standard of living; the corona pandemic will restrict my civil rights and freedoms; change of social differences due to the corona pandemic; assessment of the current social cohesion in the neighborhood; change of the cohesion in the neighborhood due to the corona pandemic; assessment of own economic situation; expectations for personal future regarding living conditions in five years; resilience ( I tend to recover quickly after difficult times, I find it hard to get through stressful situations, I don´t need much time to recover from a stressful event, I find it hard to return to normal when something bad has happened, I usually get through difficult times without major problems); membership in a non-profit association/organization; political self-assessment left-right.

Demography: sex; age; household size; children; number of children; number of children under 14 and aged 14 or 15; year of moving to current place of residence; steady partnership; employment status; highest general school-leaving qualification; highest educational qualification; receipt of transfer payments in the last twelve months; net household income; net household income categorized; born in Germany; country of birth; German citizenship; other citizenship; father and mother born in Germany (migration background).

Additionally coded were: Interview number; subsample landline/mobile; number of landline telephone numbers in household, postal code (anonymized); district; preferred place of residence; migration background; federal state; BBR region type new, west-east identifier; panelists May/June 2020, February/ March 2020; cross-sectional weight, dropout-adjusted weighting factor.

Wave 3:
The questions from the second wave were largely reproduced. In addition, the age, the number of people in the household and the type of housing were surveyed again from the first wave.