Saxonian longitudinal study - wave 29, 2016

The Saxonian longitudinal study is a longitudinal study in the social sciences. It was begun in 1987 and surveys the change in political attitudes of young adults in the new federal states of the former East Germany over the unification of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany. Since the 16th wave (2002), the subject of unemployment and health has been intensively surveyed. Another new focus is on questions of partnership and personality.

Topics: 1. politics and life goals: Opinion on the unification of the GDR and the FRG; more separations vs. more similarities between East and West Germans; estimated number of years until East/West Germany is united; estimated number of years until East and West Germans have grown together to form a proper community; personal significance of selected life goals compared to 1989 (fulfilling work, independent and self-reliant life, happy married and family life, bringing up one´s own children, self-realisation, not entering into firm ties); feeling of being threatened by possible (renewed) own unemployment or partner), personal hardship, increasing cost of living, deterioration in health and poverty in old age; left-right self-assessment; party preference (Sunday question); assessment of life in the GDR as a whole; assessment of social development in East Germany as progress or regression; living in freedom is crucial despite all the problems caused above all by unemployment vs. Freedom is of no use without work; socialism as a good thing that has been poorly implemented so far; support for the aims of the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA, LEGIDA); attitude towards foreigners in general; identity as a German, a Saxon, a European, a citizen of the former GDR, a citizen of the Federal Republic, an East German, a winner of German unification; importance of different areas of life (friends/ acquaintances, leisure activities/ hobbies, health, income/ financial security, job/ work, housing situation, family life/ children, partnership/ sexuality); satisfaction with these areas of life; attitudes to life (general confidence in people, you can no longer rely on anyone, better be careful when dealing with strangers before you trust them).

2. Unemployment: own unemployment since the reunification; frequency of unemployment overall; total duration of unemployment since the reunification in months; unemployment since October 2015 (number of months); unemployment of partner and parents since the reunification; job security; worries about the job; Attitude towards unemployment (makes people afraid of the future, takes away their self-confidence, makes them ill, typical feature of the current social system, means loss of individual freedoms, violates respect for human dignity, makes people depressed, over time one can get used to unemployment, those who are really looking for work will find some, makes people poor, takes away joy of life, makes people doubt the social system); perceived burden of unemployment; resources for coping with unemployment and coping strategy; general conviction of being able to cope with unemployment; experience of bullying by colleagues (I am treated like air, people talk badly about me behind my back, they play badly with me, I am exposed to real psychological terror).

3. Health: in relation to the reference period of the last 12 months: number of days with a feeling of illness; number of days with a cold; number of days on which the respondent went to work despite feeling ill; number of days with sick leave despite being able to work; total number of days with sick leave or Number of days in total with sick leave or incapacity to work; number of nights in hospital inpatient treatment; use of family doctor/general practitioner, psychotherapist and specialist; frequency of use; need for specialist advice due to psychological or social problems; Health promotion subscales (personal health behaviour and willingness to improve one´s own health as well as thoughts about possible health problems); depression tendencies (depression, meaninglessness of life, helplessness and fear of the future); frequency of selected complaints (nervousness, stomach problems, insomnia, heart problems); self-assessment of the state of health; Opinion on the ability to influence one´s own state of health; suicidal thoughts; frequency of impairment due to selected complaints in the last 2 weeks - depression tendencies, anxiety (nervousness, anxiety or tension, not being able to stop or control worries, little interest or pleasure in one´s own activities, depression, melancholy or hopelessness); Impaired by various complaints in the last 7 days (abdominal pain or digestive problems, back pain, pain in arms, legs or joints, headache, chest pain or shortness of breath, dizziness, tiredness or lack of energy and sleep disorders); frequency of alcohol consumption and amount of alcohol; frequency of consumption of 6 or more glasses of alcohol on one occasion; smoking status; time of first cigarette after getting up; number of cigarettes per day; concerns of partner, parents or close relatives about alcohol or nicotine consumption.

4. Family and partnership: personal life situation: Scale Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) e.g. understanding of partner, appropriate recognition for work done in the household or services provided for the family, etc.); social and emotional relationship with important people (experience a lot of understanding and security from others, can always count on the help of a very familiar person, can easily borrow something if necessary, etc.); social and emotional relationship with important people (experience a lot of understanding and security from others, can always count on the help of a very familiar person, can easily borrow something if necessary, etc.); social and emotional relationship with the family (experience a lot of understanding and security from others, can always count on the help of a very familiar person, can easily borrow something if necessary, etc.); characterisation of the partnership: frequency of behaviour of the partner (expresses satisfaction in being together, expresses disparagement about an opinion expressed by the respondent, hugs, conversation in the evening, blaming if something went wrong, etc.).

5. Personality: perceived autonomy (cope well in life on my own, make my own decisions, shape my life according to my own ideas, cope with my everyday life without outside help); resilience (letter resilient coping scale: try to change difficult situations, control my own reactions, can develop myself further when dealing with difficult situations, actively seek ways to make up for losses); general self-efficacy (can rely on my own abilities in difficult situations, can cope well with most problems by my own efforts, can also solve strenuous and complicated tasks well); life orientation optimism/pessimism (expect the best even in uncertain times, it is easy to relax if something can go wrong, then it does, always look ahead optimistically, feel good in a circle of friends, important to be constantly busy, things never develop according to one´s own ideas, not easy to get upset, rarely count on something good happening to me, expect more good than bad things); frequency of loneliness (lack of company of others, feeling left out, socially isolated).

Demography: sex; age; current residence in East Germany, in West Germany or abroad; occupational status; marital status; living together with a partner; duration of the partner relationship; divorced; number of divorces; occupational status of the partner; children; number of children; number of own children in the household; level of personal net income; satisfaction with the current life situation

Additionally coded: ID; wave; type of survey; willingness to interview on topics of the study; fee waiver in favour of the study; total duration of unemployment in months since reunification -highest value from wave 12 to 29; world view, GDR and FRG identification; unemployment grouped; PTT confidence (total); scale of bullying intensity; categorisation of bullying intensity; Health promotion subscales, D-score, G-score, PHD depressiveness, PHQ anxiety; PHQ sum; sum Alk audit; alcohol audit categories (inconspicuous, conspicuous); F-Sozu-6 (mean); PFB-K tenderness and argumentativeness (sums); commonalities/ communication (sum); PA- perceived autonomy (mean); Brief Resilient Coping Scale; General Self-Efficacy Short Scale (mean); Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) optimism; Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) pessimism; LS-S Loneliness Scale.