Today is the day: FReDA is publishing the complete dataset from the first survey wave! As of now, the data from the three sub-waves W1R, W1A and W1B are available to researchers and can be requested via GESIS. The FReDA dataset makes it possible to carry out representative analyses of the situation and changes in family life, including family forms, family dynamics, fertility, parenthood, socialisation as well as separation and divorce in the context of e.g. the labour market, mobility and health.
Successful start with high number of participants
In Spring 2021, a probabilistic sample of 108,256 randomly selected persons between the ages of 18 and 49 who are registered in Germany was contacted to recruit panel participants for FReDA. The selected individuals were invited to participate by mail, with an incentive of €5 included in the invitation letter. Of those contacted, more than 38,000 people returned the questionnaires.
Focus on partnership and children
A large part of the W1A questionnaire concerns the partnerships as well as possible children of the respondents. Therefore, respondents were asked to provide information about their children, both biological and adopted or stepchildren. The questions about the respondents' partner referred to both the current partnership and previous partnerships. In addition to the socio-demographic data of the partners, the duration of the partnership and the type of cohabitation were also asked about. The questionnaire thus makes it possible to trace the respondents’ partnership history.
In this context, it is particularly exciting that FReDA is a multi-actor study that interviews both the anchors and their partners in each wave. The data from the partners of our panellists who were interviewed in W1A are currently being processed by GESIS and will be available to researchers in the near future. This will then make dyadic analyses of partnerships possible.