The survey "Growing Up in Germany: Everyday Lives" (in short: AID:A) has been providing important information on the situation of children, adolescents, young adults and their families in Germany for ten years. It is a central component of the survey research of the German Youth Institute (DJI) and will be conducted for the third time in 2019. In this standardized survey, children, adolescents, young adults and parents of minors are asked about their everyday living conditions and experiences in around 6,000 households nationwide.
In 2009 and 2014, the first nationwide telephone surveys took place under the title AID:A I and AID:A II. With these regular time portraits, survey research at the DJI provides key insights into how children, adolescents and young adults in Germany are changing as they grow up and how families and society are changing. In this way, the DJI makes an important scientific contribution to describing social trends in Germany. The spectrum of topics is broad, ranging from the increasing importance of out-of-home education and care for younger children and schoolchildren in the afternoon, changes in the educational and leisure behavior of adolescents, to changes in family structures and everyday organization in separating families.
Some of the respondents participated in the surveys more than once between 2009 and 2018. This longitudinal study, "AID:A Panel III," makes it possible to track developmental processes over the life course. Of central interest here are influences of earlier experiences, e.g., on later family formation and division of labor in the partnership. Questions about the continuity of voluntary and especially political commitment are also addressed.
AID:A 2019, which is also known to respondents under the label "Growing Up / Being an Adult," is funded, like its predecessors, primarily by grants from the German Federal Ministry for Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) and by the DJI's own resources.
Unlike any other comparably broad-based survey in Germany, AID:A focuses on the living situation of children, adolescents and young adults. With a nationwide, representative survey, AID:A provides sustainable information for the social reporting of children, adolescents and young adults. From the age of nine, the children themselves also have their say. AID:A is not limited to information from parents.
Step by step, AID:A has expanded its view beyond single individuals to their immediate social environment. For example, since 2014, both parents (and not just one respondent) have been interviewed whenever possible in the case of minor children. For young adults living in a couple household, the partner is included. In the current AID:A 2019 survey, siblings and other household members of survey age (0 - 32 years) are now included.
Thus, AID:A 2019 increasingly takes into account that respondents are to be seen as members of close social networks. The fact that these networks extend beyond the household is taken into account in questions about grandparents and separation families as well as in questions about partnerships and circles of friends. Accordingly, the lived relationships within and outside the family move to the center of the analysis, for example with a view to the integration of adolescents among their peers.
Previous AID:A surveys were conducted as telephone interviews. In contrast, AID:A 2019 relies on face-to-face interviews. Like AID:A II, the sample includes people in the age range from birth to age 32 and is sampled at random through population registration offices. If there are other people in the targeted age range living in the household (for example, siblings or the target person’s own children), they are also included. Furthermore, residential parents of target subjects are also interviewed, as well as the residential partner of the target subject. Interviews take place between February and Summer 2019 in around 6,000 households across Germany and are conducted by professional interviewers from a professional survey institute. A telephone survey is also possible on request.
To enable comparisons over time, AID:A 2019 takes up similar topicsas the previous AID:A surveys. For instance, current social trends, such as the spread of complex family structures (separation, step, and patchwork families), are included. Issues related to work-family compatibility, the integration of people with a migration background, and social relationships in young adulthood are examined in greater detail. At the same time, new topics are introduced, such as the increasing use of digital devices.
Because children and adolescents are involved in different contexts depending on their age (e.g., daycare, school, apprenticeship/higher education, job) and are confronted with different developmental tasks, the survey program varies depending on their age. Parents of target subjects aged 0 to 11 years answer questions about the daycare situation, leisure activities, health, and, if the child has already started school, also about school. From the age of 9 onward, each member of the family is also interviewed about their individual lifestyles. For 9- to 11-year-old children, the topics covered family climate, satisfaction with school, circle of friends and autonomy from parents. The questionnaire for 12- to 17-year-olds also includes topics such as education, leisure, involvement in associations, first romantic relationships, but also experiences with bullying. Questions about education and employment, as well as a part-time job for students, are also added with increasing age. From the age of 16 onward, the topic of political participation is included, and from the age of 18 onward, questions on fertility intentions, educational and employment biographies, critical life events, and the use of welfare state and cultural offerings. Parents answer a separate set of questions about parenting, the compatibility of work and family, their financial situation, and romantic partnerships.
Complementing official surveys such as the microcensus, the DJI Survey AID:A pursues three central goals:
First, to gain broad-based insight into how social change is reflected in changes in the living conditions, attitudes, behavior patterns, and subjective well-being of children, adolescents and their families. The comprehensive study provides an up-to-date set of figures that extrapolates data from previous surveys, thus enabling research in Germany to make time-series comparisons over many years.
Second, it aims to show connections between relevant framework conditions for children and adolescents growing up in Germany, individual living conditions in the local social context, and various aspects of the well-being of the adolescent generation. This also addresses the importance of contextual developmental conditions that are amenable to policy design. In this way, the DJI's research priorities are taken up in order to examine social phenomena in greater depth in the coming years and to find possible explanations or approaches to solutions.
Third, AID:A will be available to interested researchers to generate additional findings and to deepen individual research questions. This information is representative of all persons in the age range (from birth to 32 years) in Germany and allows evaluations on a wide range of questions.
In 2020, a number of federal government reports are expected to draw on information from AID:A 2019, including the Family Report, the Education Report, and the Children and Youth Report.
After preparation by the AID:A data management, the AID:A data can be requested by scientists from university and non-university research institutions as a scientific use file from the DJI Research Data Center[2].
Use of the data requires a data usage agreement, which can be applied for via DJI Research Data Center.
Without a data usage agreement, basic descriptive statistics[3] can be viewed via the DJI Research Data Center after processing.
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