ALLBUS 2006 (Study-No. 4500, German version; Study-No. 4502, English version)

Contents:

Social monitoring of trends in attitudes, behavior, and societal change in the Federal Republic of Germany. The main topics in 2006 are:

1. Attitudes towards abortion
2. Acceptance of immigration, of ethnic minorities, and of Jews in Germany
3. Citizenship and country of origin
4. Self-assessment of personal characteristics
5. Political attitudes
6. Attitudes relating to the process of German unification
7. Other topics
8. ALLBUS-Demography
9. Data on the interview (paradata)
10. Work Orientations III (ISSP)
11. Role of Government IV (ISSP)
12. Added value

Topics:

1. Attitudes towards abortion: abortion because of health risks for mother or child; abortion because married woman does not want more children; abortion after rape, due to financial situation or by single women not wanting to marry; permitting abortion without restriction.
2. Acceptance of immigration, of ethnic minorities, and of Jews in Germany: attitude towards the influx of various groups of immigrants; scale of attitudes towards foreigners; contacts with foreigners within the family, at work, in the neighborhood, or among friends; perceived consequences of presence of foreigners in Germany; perception and evaluation of discriminatory behavior towards foreigners; assumed social evaluation statements on foreigners; ranking in terms of importance of different citizenship requirements; opinion on dual citizenship and on equal rights for foreigners; support for the teaching of Islam in public schools; attitude towards ethnically mixed neighborhoods; estimation of proportion of foreigners in East and West Germany; living in neighborhoods with high percentage of foreigners; percentage of foreigners in local county (Kreis); local relationship between foreigners and Germans; perceived differences in lifestyle; indicators for social distance to ethnic minorities and foreigners; items on anti-Semitism; opinion of peers on foreigners.
3. Citizenship and country of origin: first, second, and third citizenship of respondent and of spouse or partner; number of citizenships of respondent and of spouse or partner; original citizenship of respondent and of spouse or partner; country of origin of respondent and of respondent's parents and grandparents; country respondent lived in when young; length of residence in Germany.
4. Self-assessment of personal characteristics: respondent investigates the qualifications of candidates in elections, sometimes feels resentful, is a good listener, sometimes "plays sick", takes advantage of others, is willing to admit mistakes, practices what s/he preaches, is always courteous, is irritated by people asking favors, has never deliberately hurt others (Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale).
5. Political attitudes: political interest; postmaterialism (importance of law and order, fighting rising prices, free expression of opinions, and influence on governmental decisions); self-placement on left-right continuum.
6. Attitudes relating to the process of German unification: attitude towards demand for increased willingness to make sacrifices in the West and more patience in the East; unification is advantageous, for East and West respectively; the future in the East depends on the willingness of eastern Germans to make an effort; strangeness of citizens in the other part of Germany; pressures to work harder in the East; attitudes towards the Stasi-past of individuals; evaluation of socialism as an idea.
7. Other topics: family as a prerequisite for happiness; marriage in case of steady partnership; desire to have children; social pessimism and orientation towards the future (anomia); self-assessment of social class; fair share in standard of living; pride in being a German; treatment of national socialist past; authoritarianism; assessment of the present and future economic situation in Germany and of present and future personal economic situation; telephone; possession of mobile phone; Internet use.
8. ALLBUS-Demography:
   • Details about the respondent: month and year of birth, age, gender, citizenship (nationality), number of citizenships, place of residence (federal state, administrative district, size of municipality, BIK-type of region), geographical origin, religious denomination, frequency of church attendance, school education, vocational training, employment status, details about current and former occupation respectively, fear of unemployment, affiliation to public service, supervisory functions, date of termination of full- or part-time employment, working hours per week (primary and secondary job), status of non-employment, length of unemployment, respondent's income, type of dwelling, self-description of place of residence, overall health, marital status, voting intention (Sonntagsfrage) and electoral participation.
   • Details about respondent's current spouse: age, month and year of birth, citizenship (nationality), number of citizenships, school education, vocational training, employment status, details about current occupation, affiliation to public service, status of non-employment.
   • Details about respondent's steady partner: age, month and year of birth, citizenship (nationality), number of citizenships, school education, vocational training, employment status, details about current occupation, affiliation to public service, status of non-employment.
   • Details about respondent's parents: school education of mother and father, vocational training of mother and father, details about both parents' occupation.
   • Description of household: size of household, household income, number of persons older than 17 in household (reduced size of household).
   • Details about household members: family relation to respondent, gender, month and year of birth, age, marital status.
   • Details about children not living in the household: number of children not living in the household, gender, year of birth, age.
   • Respondent's current memberships: current and previous membership in a trade union, membership in a political party.
9. Data on the interview (paradata): date of interview; beginning and end of interview; length of interview; reachability of respondent; willingness to participate; presence of other persons during interview; presence of spouse, partner or children during interview; presence of other relatives during interview; interference of other persons in the course of the interview; willingness to cooperate and reliability of information from respondent; respondent followed interview on screen; details about respondent's residential building and its neighborhood; evaluation of CASI-survey in ISSP-part; problems with CASI reported by interviewer; willingness to participate in on-line surveys.
   Details about the interviewer: gender; age; school education; identification number; length of experience as an interviewer.
10. Work Orientations III (ISSP): desired distribution of time for work and leisure activities; money and motivation for work; relevance of job characteristics (secure job, high income, good career opportunities, interesting work, work autonomy, chance to help other people, social usefulness); preferences regarding employment (self-employment, in private business, size of wokplace, in public service); assessment of job security; impact of work on family life; better job security and working conditions because of trade unions; preference for full- or part-time work; respondent on parental leave; preference for less or more work (and pay); characteristics of own job (secure job, high income, good career opportunities, interesting work, work autonomy, chance to help other people, social usefulness, allows development of personal skills); stressful, unhealthy or dangerous working conditions; autonomy regarding organization of own work; impact of work on family life and vice versa; usefulness of work experience in current job and in looking for new job; participation in further training over past 12 months; quality of relationship between superiors and employees and between colleagues; job satisfaction; willingness to work harder; pride in employer; willingness to turn down better paid job; chance of finding equivalent job; replaceability in current job; likelihood of looking for a new job in the near future; fear of unemployment; what respondent is prepared to do to avoid unemployment; secondary job; respondent has previously been in work for at least 1 year; date of termination of full- or part-time employment; main reason for terminating employment; desire for work; likelihood of success in job search; currently looking for work; means used in looking for work; unemployed respondent further training during last 12 months; main source of personal income while unemployed; preferred solution for retirement insurance system; willingness to work past the age of 65; self-classification on a top-bottom-scale; self-assessment of character traits (abridged Big Five Inventory measuring extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to experience); assessment of CASI-method in ISSP part.
11. Role of Government IV (ISSP): attitudes towards the observance of laws; attitudes towards different forms of protest against the government; opinions on freedom of speech for extremists; attitude towards a miscarriage of justice; attitudes towards economically oriented government measures; attitudes towards an increase of expenditures of the government for environmental protection, health service, police, the educational system, defense, pensions, unemployment benefit, culture; assessment of state responsibility for socio-political tasks (social support for the elderly, students, housing provision, job creation; economic growth through assistance to industry, price stability, etc.); assessment of government success in national security, fighting crime, fighting unemployment, protecting the environment; attitude towards the curtailing of freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism; political interest; overall attitude towards politics and the political system (subjective assessment of political influence (political efficacy), level of political awareness, politicians and election promises); assessment of fairness of tax levels for different income groups; interpersonal trust; magnitude of personal influence in public life; personal acquaintance with influential figures; fair treatment by civil servants; personal relation to civil servants is beneficial; assessment of the extent of corruption (politicians, civil servants); personal experience with corruption during the last 5 years; mean number of social contacts; self-classification on a top-bottom-scale; self-assessment of character traits (abridged Big Five Inventory measuring extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to experience); assessment of CASI-method in ISSP part.
    Questions on the conduct of the ISSP-interviews; use of fixed-line telephone, of mobile phone, and of the Internet.
12. Added value: Inglehart-Index; family typology, classification of private households (according to Porst and Funk); International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO 1968, 1988); occupational prestige (according to Treiman); Standard International Occupational Prestige Scale (SIOPS, according to Ganzeboom), International Socio-economic Index of Occupational Status (ISEI, according to Ganzeboom); magnitude prestige (according to Wegener); occupational metaclassification (according to Terwey); class position (according to Goldthorpe); transformation weight for analyses on household level; east-west design weight.

Total Population and Sample:

• Universe sampled: Federal Republic of Germany
• Sample of individuals: Two stage disproportionate random sample in western Germany (incl. West Berlin) and eastern Germany (incl. East Berlin) of all persons (German and non German) who resided in private households on the day of the interview and were born before 1 January 1988. In the first sample stage municipalities (Gemeinden) in western Germany and municipalities in eastern Germany were selected with a probability proportional to their number of adult residents; in the second sample stage individual persons were selected at random from the municipal registers of residents.
  Targeted individuals who did not have adequate knowledge of German to conduct the interview were treated as systematic unit non-responses.

Method of Data Collection:

• Personal interview with standardized questionnaire (CAPI - Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing; 4 question surveyed in split-half using CASI (Computer Assisted Self-Interviewing)).
• Two additional CASI-questionnaires for ISSP (split-half).

Primary Sampling Units / Sample-Points:

Response Rate:

Publications:

• Bens, Arno 2006:
  Zur Auswertung haushaltsbezogener Merkmale mit dem ALLBUS 2004, in: ZA-Information 59: 143 - 156.
• Terwey, Michael 2000:
  ALLBUS: A German General Social Survey, in: Schmollers Jahrbuch 120: 151 - 158.
• Terwey, Michael 2013:
  Oversamples, Units of Analysis, and the Topic of Data Transformation, in: Michael Terwey and Horst Baumann: Variable Report ALLBUS / German General Social Survey Cumulation 1980-2010. Study-No. 4576. Cologne: GESIS, GESIS - Variable Reports; No. 2013/2: x – xvii.
• Terwey, Michael and Angelika Scheuer 2007:
  Etwas mehr Anpassung gewünscht. Einstellungen zur Integration von Ausländern in Deutschland, in: Informationsdienst Sozialer Indikatoren (ISI) 38: 12 - 14.
• Wasmer, Martina, Evi Scholz and Michael Blohm 2007:
  Konzeption und Durchführung der "Allgemeinen Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften" (ALLBUS) 2006. ZUMA Methodenbericht 07/09.

The known literature using ALLBUS-Data is documented in the ALLBUS-Bibliography. This bibliography can be searched online at the GESIS web presence.

Further Notes:

• Respondents from the area of the new federal states are oversampled.
• A second version of this data set (387 variables) with a shortened demography module is additionally available as ALLBUScompact 2006 (Study-No. 4501).
• GESIS also provides an English language version of ALLBUS 2006 (ALLBUS/GGSS 2006, Study-No. 4502) and ALLBUScompact 2006 (ALLBUS/GGSScompact, Study-No. 4503 (387 variables)).
• A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for use in data citations can be found in the GESIS Data Catalogue.