Welfare Survey 1984

Actual living conditions and subjectively perceived quality of life of
the West German population.

Topics: 1. Objective situation in the various areas of life: housing
situation; residence furnishing; size of residence; living together
with a partner; members of household and size of household; vocational
training and employment career; employment and mobility; reasons for
non-employment of housewives; information on further employment
intents; paid and unpaid side jobs; frequency of unemployment since
1970; judgement on financial security in case of unemployment;
assessment of probability of occupational change in the next few years
(scale); fear of loss of job; condition of health; visits to the
doctor; use of medication; number of relatives in nursing homes and
frequency of visits; personal disability; happiest as well as most
unfortunate experience in life; friends outside of the family;
financial situation; occupation with children; frequency of maintenance
work and repair work on car and in residence; carrying out repairs in
household by members of household or companies; assistance for or from
relatives, neighbors and friends; evaluation of assistance recieved.

2. Subjective well-being and perceived quality of life: marital
satisfaction; understanding between partners; satisfaction with family
life, management of household, division of labor in household, leisure
time, health, social security, standard of living, public safety,
environmental protection, one´s own training, job, household income,
church and status as housewife (scale); general work satisfaction and
contentment with life (scale); contentment with life and satisfaction
with income in comparison over time; feeling of happiness; loneliness;
importance of areas of life; work orientation; postmaterialism;
disturbance of well-being through differences of opinion; intensity of
disputes; conflict partner; importance of selected areas of life for
well-being and satisfaction (scale); current greatest concerns and
difficulties as well as perceived possibilities of overcoming;
importance of job characteristics; perceived stress from employment or
housework (scale); distribution of daily housework among members of
household; attitude to welfare state or more personal responsibility
(scale); attitude to abortion and treatment of terminally ill; attitude
to child-raising support for pensions of mothers; perceived differences
of opinion between social conflict groups.

3. Miscellaneous: self-assessment of social class; memberships and
reasons for memberships; activities in the direction of income
improvement; party inclination; political interest; religiousness;
video recorder possession and use; possession of personal computer and
use of personal computer as well as reasons for this acquisition; car
possession.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; religiousness; school education;
occupational training; household size; degree of urbanization;
memberships.

Interviewer rating: type of building; type of house; type of city;
presence of other persons and their intervention in interview;
reliability and willingness of respondent to cooperate; length of
interview.