Since 2008 the German Family Panel (pairfam) has been collecting information on the formation, development and stability of partnerships. These data are an essential basis for a number of important and interesting social scientific analysis. In December 2017 the German Research Foundation has not only approved two further survey waves, but moreover, also the increase in sample size by 6000 new people.
Research topics are the decision on the birth of children, the IF and WHEN, parenting and children's development, the relationship between generations, the exchange of material resources and intangible services, as well as the social embedding of partnerships and family development processes.
This worldwide unique multidisciplinary study is only possible because thousands of individuals and families have regularly been giving information for the last ten years about their situation in various areas of life. Therefore, development and changes can be documented over a longer period of time. And different perspectives can be taken into account, not only because data are collected about individual respondents, but also on other family members and their relations amongst each other.
Pairfam is a cooperation project of several universities, a structure which has proved highly successful as regards content and organization. The University of Bremen has been part since the beginning with Prof. Dr. Johannes Huinink as co-initiator of the survey. In the following round pairfam will be carried out by the University of Bremen (Prof. Sonja Drobni?, PhD), Jena (Prof. Dr. Franz Neyer), Cologne (Prof. Dr. Karsten Hank) and Munich (Prof. Dr. Josef Brüderl, Prof. Dr. Sabine Walper).
Pairfam data are available for the global scientific community and can be obtained from the GESIS-Institute.
More information: Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam)
Contact:
Dr. Petra Buhr
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 9
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58539
E-Mail: buhr@uni-bremen.de
Prof. Sonja Drobnič
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 9
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-66360
E-Mail: drobnic@uni-bremen.de
Timo Peter