Determinants of Divorce (Pilot Study)

Information on the course of partner relations and marriages. Judgement
on the relation or relations. Topics: detailed information on
chronology of first relation: meeting, start of steady relation, moving
together in a common residence, engagement, registry office as well as
church wedding and (if appropriate) divorce; information on respondent
and spouse regarding: number of previous steady relations, previously
living together with a partner, time of termination of the earlier
partnership, assessment of sexual prior experiences, children from
earlier relations, financial obligations regarding earlier partners and
contact with earlier partners; information on respondent as well as
spouse regarding place of residence before start of the relation,
prospects of finding a partner, putting an advertisement for a marriage
partner in the paper or responding to one and utilization of an agency
to find a partner; self-assessment of opportunities to find a partner
as well as assessment of desireability of partner (scale);
circumstances or place of meeting the partner; initiator of meeting;
assessment of the agreement of ways of life, general moral concepts,
character traits and sexuality at the beginning of the steady relation
and information on speed, point in time and result of changes;
assessment of political orientation of partner and self-assessment on a
left-right continuum at the beginning of the partnership; information
on respondent and spouse regarding frequency of church attendance,
number of desired children, employment intent and expectations of
spouse regarding taking on employment; attitude to marriage and role
expectation (scale) of respondent as well as spouse; persons advising
for first marriage and current marriage; ´marriage wave´ in one´s
circle of friends at the time of personal marriage; attitude of first
spouse to marriage at that point in time; material advantages as reason
for the marriage; pregnancy at marriage decision; pregnancy planned by
respondent as well as spouse at marriage decision; common children at
marriage decision; information on circle of friends of the two spouses
and development of a common circle of friends; social proximity with
parents and parents-in-law from the perspective of respondent and
spouse at the time of marriage; relationship of parents of partners
among one another; closeness of the spouses to their best friends;
detailed information on all children regarding month of birth, year of
birth, sex, year of death, common child, planned birth, living in the
common residence, point in time of moving out, disability, care of
third parties; completion of a special marriage contract; separation of
property; possession of house, condominium or property during the first
marriage; information on possession of business, common financial
investments, purchase of assets, inheritance and gift; judgement on the
economic conditions in the marriage for every individual year of
marriage; existence of separate bank accounts and mutual power of
attorney for bank accounts; point in time of founding the common
household; type and extent of division of labor in household at the
beginning of common housekeeping; satisfaction of respondent as well as
partner with the division of labor; cause, point in time and
satisfaction of the two spouses with changes in the division of labor
in following years; frequency of conflicts due to the division of
labor; attention of spouse as well as of respondent at the start and in
the later course of time; satisfaction with course of sexuality at the
start and in the later course of time; romantic behavior and trust in
partner at the start as well as in the later course of time; attempts
to change characteristics and behavior of respondent as well as spouse
and outcome of these attempts; information on serious illnesses,
injuries, chronic complaints, disabilities and psychological illnesses
of respondent as well as spouse and their children; cases of nursing
care in one´s family; separation times; cause, time of begin and end of
separations in the marriage; frequency of smaller arguments at the
beginning of steady relations and in the course of conflicts; serious
conflicts in the first year of marriage; number of smouldering
conflicts; time of begin of a serious conflict and its content; time of
first thinking about failure of the marriage and thoughts of divorce
from the perspective of respondent and his first spouse; chronological
sequence of conversations of respondent and spouse with friends and
with a lawyer about divorce; time of separation of table and bed;
initiator of the divorce and the one responsible for the divorce; time
of leaving the common residence and moving out by respondent or
partner; the one filing for divorce; time of filing for divorce and
divorce date; obstacles to divorce from the perspective of respondent
as well as from the perspective of spouse (scale); degree of agreement
in the divorce; divorce terror; obligation to pay maintenance;
satisfaction with support arrangement; custody for children;
satisfaction with arrangement of custody; satisfaction with division of
assets and general satisfaction with current divorce law; intensity of
problems after the divorce; contact with first spouse; point in time of
re-marriage of respondent as well as former spouse; attitude to divorce
regulation according to the question of blame and to requiring
employment of the one obligated to pay maintenance; information on
natural father and natural mother of respondent or the step-father or
step-mother as well as the natural father and the natural mother of
spouse: school degree, vocational training certificate, parents living
together in a marital or non-marital long-term relationship, judgement
on the relation of parents to one another in their marriage, point in
time of possible divorce or separation of parents, point in time of
death of parents; having grown up with parents or other child-raising
instances; economic conditions of parents of respondent as well as
spouse; number of siblings of respondent as well as spouse and
proportion of them divorced; moving frequency and moving date during
the first marriage; residence in direct proximity of parents or
parents-in-law; information on frequency and time of contacts with
parents. As forms to be filled out several times during the oral
interview questionnaires were handed out and subsequently taken by the
interviewer. They contained questions on: miscarriages or still births;
number of abortions; point in time of abortion; father; common desire
of partner for abortion; evaluation of the relation from the time of
begin of steady relation to marriage and evaluation of the marriage for
every individual year; information on extra-marital relations of
respondent and spouse and their significance for the break up of the
marriage; sacrifices by the two spouses of advantages in occupational
and financial respect for the sake of the steady relation or marriage;
assessment of trust in the continued existence of the relation or later
marriage on an annual basis. At various points in time in the course of
the interview time measurements were made. In particular the times of
the forms to be filled out were recorded. Demography: for both
respondent and partner the following was recorded: school degree at
time of termination of the time in school as well as at start of steady
relation; detailed information on school education and vocational
training specifying chronology; length of voluntary social year,
military service or community service; courses of training and
participation in further education measures; employment since steady
relation; detailed information on individual jobs held regarding
occupational position, length of the position, arrangement of working
hours, number of hours each week and income; assessment of personal
difficulties to find employment during the marriage; times of
unemployment during the marriage and information on the times and
reasons for unemployment; sex; month of birth; year of birth; religious
denomination; time of conversion; reason for change of denomination;
sex; number of earlier marriages of spouse; termination of first
marriage by death or divorce; citizenship of partner at time of
marriage and current citizenship; time of change of citizenship;
personal citizenship and its change. Interviewer rating: presence of
other persons during the interview and their degree of relationship to
respondent; interventions of other persons in the interview;
willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent. Also encoded
was: length of interview; date of interview; sex of interviewer; age of
interviewer; interviewer identification number; origin of address;
administrative district; city size.