Voluntary Social Commitment in Goettingen, Karlsruhe, Worms and Wuerzburg (Citizen Survey)

Attitude to honorary participation and self-help. Extent, intensity and
motives of the social commitment or interest in social activities.

Topics: extent to which informed about self-help and honorary
participation in the city; sources of information; concepts of an
honorary activity and of self-help groups as well as attitude to these
activities; judgement on the opportunities for social commitment in
various organizations and groups; familiarity and use of social and
health-related institutions and groups in the city; willingness to pay
expense allowance for an honorary worker or a self-help group in case
of personal need; sources of information about honorary work and
self-help as well as knowledge of various charity organizations and
city offices and attitude to these organizations; judgement on the
degree of familiarity of opportunities for social commitment; preferred
leisure activities given increased free time; importance of selected
moral concepts; time expended for regular care-giving; understanding of
this commitment as honorary activity or self-help; expense allowance
received for this care; preference for honorary activities;
organizational or managing character of this activity; weekly time
expended for all activities; length of residence in the city;
religiousness; judgement on personal condition of health; frequency of
medical treatments and confinement to bed since the first of the year;
personal longer illnesss, chronic illness or disabilities; handicapped
identity card und degree of disability; judgement on one´s own
financial situation; party preference; memberships; willingness to
provide one´s own address to a contact named by the city for honorary
cooperation and self-help.

The following questions were posed to all those not active in the
social and health area: willingness to be active in the social or
health area; preference for honorary activity or participation in a
self-help group; attempts at activity up to now; preferred activities
in the social or health area and time available weekly; preferred point
in time for such activities.

The following questions were posed to those interested and active in
the social and health area: demands and expectations of honorary
activities; assessment of the necessity of special knowledge; interest
in measures for further education about knowledge and skills for
honorary participation; knowledge of such further education offerings
in the city; personal motives for social commitment; attitude to
honorary participation and self-help; reasons for lack of interest in a
self-help group; judgement on the relevance of selected problems in the
social and health area of the city and of the responsibility for
problem solution; attitude to various forms of support for honorary
work (scale); judgement on the necessity of a contact for information
about honorary participation and self-help.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; ties to church; religious
denomination; self-assessment of condition of health; frequency of
medical treatment in the past year; number of days in the past year on
which respondent was confined to bed; respondent has or had longer
illnesses (e.g. chronic illness, handicap); respondent has a
handicapped identity card; degree of disability; school education;
vocational training; occupational position; employment; monthly net
household income; sources of income; evaluation of one´s own financial
situation; size of household; number of children and young people in
household; party preference; local residency; number of memberships.

Interviewer rating: German citizenship of respondent or foreigner;
reliability of respondent; housing situation.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview.