The German Family Panel (pairfam)

The German Family Panel pairfam is a multidisciplinary, longitudinal study on partnership and family dynamics in Germany, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The annually collected survey data from a nationwide random sample of more than 12,000 persons of the three birth cohorts 1971-73, 1981-83, 1991-93 and their partners, parents and children offer unique opportunities for the analysis of partner and intergenerational relationships as they develop over the course of multiple life phases. A comprehensive description of the conceptual framework and the design of the German Family Panel is given in the concept paper by Huinink et al. (2011).

The data from the three waves of the supplemental DemoDiff study as well as data from the step-up respondents are also included in the Scientific Use File (SUF). DemoDiff is a parallel study of East German anchor respondents from the birth cohorts 1971-73 and 1981-83, as well as their partners, funded by the Max-Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock.
The first wave of the DemoDiff study began with a one-year delay after the pairfam study; the last DemoDiff wave coincided with the fourth pairfam wave. From Wave 5, the DemoDiff respondents were integrated into the pairfam sample. Step-up respondents are former respondents of the child survey that have turned 15 and now participate in the main anchor survey. These step-up respondents have been surveyed since Wave 4, their data saved in separate data sets.

In Wave 11, the two youngest birth cohorts (1981-1983 and 1991-1993) were refreshed alongside a new sample from a younger birth cohort (2001-2003). In total, over 5,000 new respondents plus their partners and children were interviewed. The oldest birth cohort (1971-1973) was not refreshed. The question program for the refreshment sample is almost identical to that of the original sample. Some questions designed for repeat-participants were not posed, and refreshment sample respondents additionally answered questions posed to the original sample in previous waves. From Wave 12, the original sample and refreshment sample respondents receive identical question programs.

The German Family Panel is a multi-subject study focusing on aspects of partnership and family dynamics.

1.) Partnership formation and development
2.) Transition to first and consecutive births
3.) Intergenerational relationships
4.) Parenting and child development

In addition, the survey also touches on various issues from other life domains and demography. Most of the instruments are utilized either annually in each survey wave (core modules) or are rotated every two or every three years (extended modules). In the main survey, the anchor persons report - among other things - retrospectively on changes related to their partnerships, children, residences, and educational and occupational career since the last wave (Event History Calendar). The questionnaires for partners, parents, and children are similar to the main survey in terms of topics but differ in length and content.

The more detailed variable lists comprise all variables with names and labels plus notes on changes between the waves. These lists are available <a href=http://www.pairfam.de/en/documentation.html target=_blank>online </a>.

The project "Dynamics of Implicit Motives in Intimate Relationships" was designed as a satellite project to the German Family Panel Pairfam https://www.pairfam.de/. The project surveyed the longitudinal interaction of partner-related explicit and implicit motive dispositions with relationship quality in German couple relationships over three years. The population comprises all pairfam anchor persons (and their partners) who a) are in a romantic relationship, b) are at least 18 years old and c) speak fluent German.
The study was conducted online (CAWI) and ran from August 2016 to August 2019. Primary researchers of the satellite project are Birk Hagemeyer (University of Jena) and Felix D. Schönbrodt (LMU Munich).<br>1.) Partnership formation and development: Expectations concerning partnership (positive, negative); Partnership biography since age 14 (sex and age of partners, partnership, cohabitation and marriage episodes by month); Getting to know each other (current partner); Institutionalization of partnership (plans, ambivalence, stages); Sexuality (first times, sexual orientation, frequency of sexual intercourse, sexual competence and communication, satisfaction with sex life); Activities with partner (leisure); Cohabitation (dwelling, distance between places of residence); Division of household chores (several activities, fairness); Finances in partnership (bank accounts, living expenses); Quality of partnership (dyadic coping, NRI, MITA, feelings of competence, future orientation, readiness to make sacrifices, reciprocity orientation, problems in partnership, hostile attributions, areas of conflicts, conflict styles and behavior, tolerance of conflicts, satisfaction with relationship, subjective instability of partnership); Module for singles (satisfaction with situation as single, interest in partnership, desire for partnership, characteristics of the partner market, subjective chances, broad and in-depth exploration); Separation module (course of separation, problems in partnership, effects on children, emotional distress after separation, exposure with separation, custody and alimony arrangements).

2.) Transition to first and consecutive births: Expectations concerning life with children (value of children); Pregnancy (existence of pregnancy, tried to sire a child/get pregnant, infertility, procreation/measures inducing pregnancy, abortion/miscarriage, hypothetical social support in case of pregnancy); Contraception (use, methods, consistency of use); Social influences on family planning (by friends and parents); Fertility plans (ideal and realistic number of children, intention to become parent, timing of parenthood, agreement with partner, willingness to cut back for children, effects of being parent, parenthood decision making, reasons against children); Preconditions for parenthood (assessment of actual and target state); Societal context (assessment, influences of family policy).

3.) Intergenerational relationships: Expectations concerning the relationship to parents (value of parents); Familial norms; Family and partnership related values; Quality of parent-child-relationship (NRI); Dimensions of intergenerational relationships (frequency of contact, emotional closeness, travel-time distance); Given and received support (emotional, material, instrumental); Nursing (need for care parents, care provider); Activities parents with children (leisure); Leaving parents’ home (age).

4.) Parenting and child development: Child rearing goals; Parenting styles; Parenting role (parental self-efficacy, autonomy, anxious overprotection, social support, readiness to make sacrifices, hostile attributions); Co-parenting (problems, problem solving, appreciation/support); Perception of parental parenting style (negative communication, MITA); Assessment of own childhood; Child care (responsible persons, satisfaction with child care situation); Behavior of children (SDQ); Health of children (specific and in general); Newborn and infant module (delivery, checkups, breastfeeding, temperament, sleep at night, crying behavior, unspecific strain).

Other life domains: Personality (“Big Five”); Well-being (loneliness, self-worth, depressiveness, etc.); Health (general status, handicap, sleep at night, body height and weight); Importance of life domains (occupation, family, etc.); Satisfaction (with life, school/job, leisure activities, friends, family, financial situation); Network integration (number of friends, network generator); Leisure (several activities); Religiosity (religious denomination, frequency of church visits); work-life-balance, critical life events in social environment.

Demography: Sex; Age; Marital status; Country of birth and nationality; Number of siblings and relatives; Education (education career, educational attainment); Employment biography (employment episodes, occupation, occupational status); Employment situation (work schedule arrangement, temporary employment contract, multiple jobs, conditions at workplace, commuting, maternity/paternity leave, military/civilian service); Income and benefits (current gross and net income per month, net household income, drawing of social benefits, alimony payment, income on investments, economic deprivation); Residential biography since age 18 (first move out of parents‘ home, places of residence in federal state and country, first and second place of residence, moves, type of current household, ownership of dwelling, total living space, number of rooms, monthly expenditures for dwelling, frequency of overnight stays); Household grid (number of further persons in the household and their sex, age, kind of relationship); Information about current partner (date of birth, country of birth and nationality, education, occupation, job position, children from earlier relationships, place of residence); Information about children (number, sex, date of birth, status, cohabitation, contact, second parent, health status, child care); Information about biological parents and stepparents (date of birth, whether still alive and - if applicable - date of death, country of birth and nationality, highest level of education and vocational training, marital status, relationship status, cohabitation, old and new partnership).

Starting with Wave 7, the step-up Cohort was asked about their social media use (activities with social media, frequency of Internet use, reasons for use, negative online experiences, feelings towards others after online contact, Internet dependency, fear if missing out, group norms) and about their risk-taking behavior (and delinquency).

The parents of the anchor persons are only interviewed up to wave 8.

Due to considerably low response rates in the parents survey, this was redesigned as one-time grandparent survey in wave 8.

Children of the anchor persons taking part in the child survey will be admitted to the panel as new anchor persons (step-ups) after their 16th birthday.

Starting with wave 8, all respondents under 18 were asked about: emotional symptoms (emotion); conduct problems; prosocial behavior; hyperactivity; peer problems.

Starting with Wave 9, a new PAPI instrument on Parenting Adolescents and Young Adults (PAYA) was introduced to survey anchors and their partners regarding their relationship with adolescent and young adult offspring. Until Wave 9, the assessment of parent-child relationships and parenting was restricted to children up to age 15. Furthermore, PAYA includes new indicators on parental autonomy support and conversely - helicopter parenting to address this recently debated issue. Within this instrument, quality of parent-child relations are measured (supplementing the already existing child-parent perspective from the Child Interview) and questions concerning parenting of adolescent children (e.g., helicopter parenting).

Starting with wave 11, we introduced an additional parenting survey for partners to assess dyadic information on children under the age of 6 years as addressed by the module for babies and toddlers and the module for 3 to 5 year old children in the anchor survey. Questions include child behavior, temperament, night sleep, hostile attributions and parenting behavior.

The pairfam COVID-19 survey is an additional online survey covering the COVID-19 situation. It was conducted between May and July 2020. As a study of family life in Germany, it is particularly well suited to capture the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in private lives and personal relationships. The survey lasted approximately 15 minutes and was conducted by Kantar Public. It was targeted towards all respondents of the pairfam panel, i.e. respondents who were part of the gross sample of wave 12 and had not refused participation. In total, 3,154 anchor persons participated. For more information: <a href=https://search.gesis.org/research_data/ZA5959?lang=en target=_blank>ZA5959 </a>