The German Family Panel (pairfam)

Citation

• Title: The German Family Panel (pairfam)
• Investigators: Brüderl, Josef; Drobnič, Sonja; Hank, Karsten; Neyer, Franz J.; Walper, Sabine
• DOI: 10.4232/pairfam.5678.13.0.0
• URL: www.pairfam.de/en

Publications using these data should cite the DOI (doi: 10.4232/pairfam.5678.11.0.0) and include one of the following references:

• Brüderl, Josef, Sonja Drobnič, Karsten Hank, Franz J. Neyer, Sabine Walper, Philipp Alt, Elisabeth Borschel, Christiane Bozoyan, Madison Garrett, Svenja Geissler, Tita Gonzalez Avilés, Nicolai Gröpler, Kristin Hajek, Michel Herzig, Rüdiger Lenke, Renate Lorenz, Katharina Lutz, Timo Peter, Richard Preetz, Julia Reim, Barbara Sawatzki, Claudia Schmiedeberg, Philipp Schütze, Nina Schumann, Carolin Thönnissen, Katharina Timmermann & Martin Wetzel. 2022. The German Family Panel (pairfam). GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA5678 Data file Version 13.0.0, doi.org/10.4232/pairfam.5678.13.0.0
• Huinink, Johannes, Josef Brüderl, Bernhard Nauck, Sabine Walper, Laura Castiglioni, & Michael Feldhaus. 2011. Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam): Conceptual framework and design. Zeitschrift für Familienforschung - Journal of Family Research 23: 77-101.

Publications using data from the pairfam COVID-19 survey should cite the DOI (doi: 10.4232/pairfam.5959.1.1.0) and include one of the following references:

• Walper, Sabine, Barbara Sawatzki, Philipp Alt, Julia Reim, Claudia Schmiedeberg, Carolin Thönnissen, and Martin Wetzel (2021). The pairfam COVID-19 survey. GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA59589 Data file Version 1.1.0, https://doi.org/10.4232/pairfam.5959.1.1.0
• Walper, Sabine, Barbara Sawatzki, Philipp Alt, Julia Reim, Claudia Schmiedeberg, Carolin Thönnissen, and Martin Wetzel (2021). The pairfam COVID-19 survey: Design and instruments. Release 1.1. LMU Munich: pairfam Technical Paper 15

Study info

The German Family Panel pairfam (“Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics”) was a multidisciplinary, longitudinal study of partnership and family dynamics in Germany from 2008 to 2021. Survey data was collected annually from a nationwide random sample of initially more than 12,000 German residents of the three birth cohorts 1971-73, 1981-83, 1991-93 and their partners, parents, and children. In wave 11, a supplementary refreshment sample of 6,000 respondents from the birth cohorts 1981-1983, 1991-93, and a new cohort born 2001-03 was integrated into the panel. The multi-actor structure of the pairfam data offers unique opportunities for the analysis of partner and generational relationships as they develop over the course of multiple life phases. The questionnaires for anchor respondents, their partners, parents, and children differ in length and content, but are broadly similar in terms of the main topics: * Partnership formation and development * Transition to first and consecutive births * Intergenerational relationships * Parenting and child development * Social embeddedness

Method

• Data collection agent: Kantar Public (formerly TNS Infratest Social Research)
• Population: 12,402 German residents of the three birth cohorts 1971-73, 1981-83, 1991-93 (wave1) / 6,000 German residents from the three birth cohorts 1981-83, 1991-91, 2001-03 (wave11)
• Selection method: All samples stemmed from multi-stage nationwide random samples that were regionally clustered.
• Collection mode: Interviews were conducted annually via computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) with an integrated self-administered (CASI) module. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, interviews in waves 12 and 13 were conducted either in CAPI or CATI (computer-assisted telephone interview) mode.

The study implemented a multi-actor design involving main respondents’ partners, parents, and children (alternating data collection via PAPI or CAPI instruments). Participants of the child survey who reached the age of 15 continued in panel as “step-up” anchor respondents.

See the detailed cumulative field report for more information. An overview of sample sizes and development is available here.

Current instruments

Pairfam is presented to respondents and interviewers as “Beziehungen und Familienleben in Deutschland” (translation: “Intimate Relationships and Family Development in Germany”). This umbrella term covers up to 7 different questionnaires per wave. While the anchor (and “step-up” anchor) respondent interviews are processed as CAPI/CASI (or in waves 12 and 13: CAPI/CASI or CATI/PAPI), all other respondent types are collected as self-administered PAPI. An concise overview of the instruments implemented in each wave of the pairfam study is available here.

The most current instruments (Wave 13) are as follows: | Label | Codebook | Description | Period | Analysis unit | |:---|:---|:---|:---|:---| | Anchor Codebook (CAPI), Wave 13 (2020/21)| EN / DE | Main anchor CAPI/CASI | wave13 | anchor | | Anchor Codebook (CATI), Wave 13 (2020/21)| EN / DE | Main anchor CATI | wave13 | anchor | | Anchor Codebook (PAPI), Wave 13 (2020/21)| EN / DE | Main anchor PAPI | wave13 | anchor | | Partner Codebook, Wave 13 (2020/21)| EN / DE | Anchor’s partner PAPI | wave13 | partner | | Child Codebook (CAPI), Wave 13 (2020/21) | EN / DE | Anchor’s child(ren) CAPI | wave13 | child | | Child Codebook (CATI), Wave 13 (2020/21) | EN / DE | Anchor’s child(ren) CATI | wave13 | child | | Parenting Codebook, Wave 13 (2020/21) | EN / DE | Supplemental anchor PAPI concerning parenting | wave13 | anchor | | Parenting Codebook: Adolescents and Young Adults (PAYA), Wave 13 (2018/19) | EN / DE | Supplemental anchor/partner PAPI concerning parenting of adolescents | wave13 | anchor | | Parenting U6 Codebook, Wave 13 (2020/21) | EN / DE | Supplemental partner PAPI concerning parenting of children under 6 | wave13 | partner | | Anchor Step-ups Codebook (anchor + transition) (CAPI), Wave 13 (2020/21) | EN / DE | (First-time) Anchor CAPI/CASI for former child respondents | wave13 | anchor | | Anchor Step-ups Codebook (anchor + transition) (CATI), Wave 13 (2020/21) | EN / DE | (First-time) Anchor CATI for former child respondents | wave13 | anchor | | Anchor Step-ups Codebook (anchor + transition) (PAPI), Wave 13 (2020/21) | EN / DE | (First-time) Anchor PAPI for former child respondents | wave13 | anchor |

Data description

Each release includes anchor respondent, partner, children, parents, and parenting data for each available wave, as well as cumulative spells data for longitudinal analyses on relationships, fertility, residential mobility, and education / employment. For more detailed information on available data sets, see our data structure summary.

Number of observations

Number of variables

Data access

The data collected by the German Family Panel pairfam are available to the research community via the GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences upon request as a Scientific Use File for scholarly analysis. The current release, 13.0, includes the following files:

• professionally prepared and anonymized pairfam data of waves1-13 (incl. the DemoDiff, sample refreshment, and “step-up” subsamples) and 13 generated data sets in the standard Stata and SPSS data formats, with both English and German labels
• all codebooks (in English and in German) and questionnaires for waves 1-13, as well as a set of instrument overviews, the concept paper, the Data Manual and Scales Manual, annual method reports, and several other documents (in English and German)

To ensure confidentiality for all respondents, pairfam adheres to strict security standards in the provision of data. Data is reserved exclusively for research use and provided only to the scientific community. All users must complete and sign the data distribution form, which must be submitted to the pairfam user support to access the complete SUF.

Documentation

Instruments

Data sets