AID:A 2027

The focus of AID:A 2027 is on topics related to the upbringing and psychosocial adjustment of children, adolescents, young adults, and the well-being in families in general. In order to make comparisons over time, AID:A 2027 has a similar thematic lens as the previous AID:A surveys. An emphasis is put on different social trends, such as all-day care for schoolchildren (in German: Ganztagschule), non-formal education, the transition from school to work, work-family balance and conflicts between those life domains, the organization of leisure time and friendships, the integration of immigrant families, and also the growing complexity of family structures (e.g., separated families, stepfamilies, patchwork families, and so called rainbow families). At the same time, new thematic foci are introduced, such as the increasing digitalization of everyday life as well as in the educational and work sphere.

The topics and survey questions in AID:A 2027 were, in large parts, operationalized in a way that allows comparisons across different age groups to be able to examine individual and societal developmental processes. In addition, the multi-actor survey design in AID:A makes it possible to contrast and compare household members' views on different topics (e.g., when both parents and children report on a respective topic).

Core themes across different age groups include ratings on:

• Life satisfaction
• Fear of the future
• Physical and mental health
• Family climate
• Leisure activities
• Friendships
• Education and work
• Media use
• Socio-demographics

Because children, adolescents, and young adults have to master different age-graded developmental tasks that also depend on their involvement in different institutional contexts (e.g., daycare, school, vocational training or studies, job), parts of the survey program are adapted to specific age groups.

• For children aged 0 to 11 years, parents answer questions about the childcare situation, leisure activities, media use, health and, if the child is already in school, also about school-related issues. For adolescents ages 12 to 17 years, parents answer a reduced set of questions (e.g., on shared leisure time and school involvement).
• From the age of 5 onward, each member of the family is interviewed individually. Children aged 5- to 8-years are asked about their relationship to the other family members, their friends, and their experiences in daycare or school. Childeren aged 9- to 11-years are also asked  about their satisfaction with school and their emerging autonomy from the parental home.
• The questionnaire for 12- to 17-year-olds includes topics, such as education, media use, their involvement in hobbies and social clubs, the use of the welfare state services and cultural offerings, first romantic but also bullying experiences. Questions about education and employment are also added for older age groups.
• From the age of 16 onward, adolescents and young adults are also asked about their political participation, and from the age of 18 onward, about their educational and employment history.
• Parents answer a separate set of questions about their role as parents, work-family balance and conflict between those life domains, their own well-being, and their financial and partnership situation.
• Adults who also provide information about the household as a whole are asked about various aspects of family life, such as family relationships, finances, and the living situation of household members.

AID:A 2027 uses a mixed-mode design, like in the previous 2023 survey, whereby it primarily makes use of online interviews (CAWI), and personal interviews in households with children under the age of 12 years. Additionally, alternative interview modes via telephone (CATI), as well as CASI (computer assisted self interview), will be offered to increase the overall participation rate.

The target sample includes individuals in the age range from birth to age 32, like in AID:A 2019 and 2023. For the third core survey AID:A 2027, all individuals who gave consent to participate again after the second core survey in 2023 will be re-contacted, and a refreshment sample in that age range will be drawn as well. If other individuals in the targeted age range also reside in a respective household (e.g., siblings or the adolescents' own children), they will also be approached to participate in the survey.

Furthermore, the parents of minors are interviewed, if they live in the same household as the target person. If the parents of minors are separated, persons living in the household who take on parental duties for the minor (e.g., stepparents or new partners of the biological parents) are also interviewed. 

The interviews are expected to take place from September 2026 until March 2027 in about 7,000 households nationwide. They will be conducted online (self-administered) andin-person by professional interviewers from the infas Institute. We expected that about 13,000 children, adolescents, and young adults, in addition to about 8,000 mothers and fathers of minors, will participate.

After data handling and cleaning conducted by the AID:A data management team, the AID:A 2027 data can be requested by scientists from university and non-university research institutions as a scientific use file from the DJI Research Data Center.

Use of the data requires a data usage agreement, which future users can apply for via the DJI Research Data Center.

Without a data usage agreement, basic descriptive statistics can be derived via the DJI Research Data Center after processing.

Information for respondents in AID:A 2027 can be found here.