The German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (PAIRFAM)

The German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (PAIRFAM) is a multidisciplinary, long-term research program that is yielding rich data for the longitudinal study of family and living arrangements in Germany. Its main focus is on partnership processes and quality, parenthood decision making and fertility, parenting and child development, and intergenerational exchanges. A number of issues from other domains of life such as education, work, income, housing, health, religiosity, leisure activities, and network embeddedness are included as well.

The PAIRFAM survey started in 2008 with a nationwide random sample of more than 12,000 anchor respondents in the three cohorts born between 1991-93, 1981-83, and 1971-73. Respondents ("anchors”), partners, (step)parents, and children above age 8 are interviewed. The program with the implemented multi-actor design is scheduled to run for a total of 14 waves with annually conducted interviews. Thus, we will be able to cover the most important family formation stages from age 15 up to age 50. The German Family Panel PAIRFAM provides a rich data infrastructure on a wide range of family related topics allowing researchers to analyze private living arrangements as they develop over time and in explicit consideration of the mutual interdependencies of relevant family members. Great efforts are being made by the project team to release fully prepared and documented data from the current survey wave as early as possible to the international and interdisciplinary scientific community. The scientific use file with data from the first five waves is published in spring 2014.

The presentation will (a) explain the scope and the design of the German Family Panel PAIRFAM, (b) demonstrate its potential for analysis with examples, and (c) provide information on how to access the data.