Since November 4, the second partial survey of this year, wave W1b, has been running in the new survey program: "FReDA - The Family Demographic Panel". Data on family demographic questions are collected there; FReDA will be one of the largest three panel studies in Germany in the future.
Respondents can still return completed interviews until January 9, 2022. So far, the response rate has been very good: as things stand, more than 18,300 fully completed interviews have already been received - and more questionnaires are coming back every day.
Data available for research from 2022
In 2022, the first data from FReDA will be made available to the scientific community. We are very excited to see what research and analyses will be conducted with it, or what insights will be drawn from the broad data material - and with what observations and recommendations FReDA will then be able to address policymakers and the public.
FReDA was launched at the beginning of 2020 with the participation of GESIS. The name FReDa stands for "Family Research and Demographic Analysis". The focus of the study is on women and men in the phase of starting a family, i.e. between the ages of 18 and 49. Twice a year, the research project collects representative, robust and high-quality data on topics such as family, couple relationships and private lifestyles, family planning and parenthood, and intergenerational relationships.
The data are made available to researchers, thus enabling up-to-date analyses of the family and the population. Every three years, the data can be linked to data from other countries as part of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) program, enabling international comparative analyses to be carried out. In addition, FReDA surveys continue to survey the pairfam study samples. The project reports key findings of political relevance to policymakers and the public.
Survey process in the hands of GESIS
The research project is a cooperative effort involving the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, and the University of Cologne. The University of Cologne represents those responsible for the relationship and family panel (pairfam).
GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences is in charge of the survey design and the methodological supervision of the study. Furthermore, GESIS organizes the programming of the questionnaires, the operational implementation of the surveys, the subsequent data processing, documentation and data provision.
Corona-compliant survey modes
FReDA was launched in January 2020. A few weeks later, Corona had a direct impact on the research project: the originally planned face-to-face surveys with interviewers were not feasible due to the pandemic and the resulting hygiene regulations. The interview modes were therefore adapted to the current situation and a Corona-compliant participation option was offered for the study.
Participants were invited to take part in an online survey (CAWI) and complete the questionnaire independently. If participants did not want to or could not do this, a paper questionnaire (PAPI) was provided as an alternative.
Current information about FReDA: www.freda-panel.de.