Access to and Documentation of Publicly Financed Survey Data

The topic of this paper is access to and documentation of survey data financed through public funds. We distinguish between four types of publicly financed survey data: (1) Academic survey data from the national or international research infrastructures; (2) data from DFG projects or similarly funded projects; (3) survey data collected in research projects funded by the Federal State and the Länder (Ressortforschung); (4) Population and Household surveys from national and international statistical agencies. For each of these types of data we describe the current situation and present recommendations for future developments.Survey data, data access, data documentation, data archive

Measuring religious affiliation and religiosity in Europe

Der Verfasser setzt sich mit der Frage auseinander, ob die Messung von Religiosität im europäischen Vergleich möglich ist. Er diskutiert zwei mögliche Ansätze: (1) die Messung von Mitgliedschaft in oder Identifikation mit einer religiösen Gemeinschaft; (2) religiöses Verhalten und religiöse Einstellungen. Als empirische Grundlage dienen die Fragen zu "Religion" im International Social Survey Programme von 1998 und im European Survey von 2002 für 18 an beiden Untersuchungen beteiligte Länder. Der Verfasser zeigt, dass Religiosität - zumindest in ihrer christlichen Variante - in Europa mit einigen wenigen Items verlässlich und valide gemessen werden kann. Items zur Messung anderer Formen von Religiosität (Esoterik, Mystizismus) fehlen noch. (ICE

Understanding time as socio-historical context: analyzing social change within the framework of multilevel analysis

From a methodological and sociological perspective, analyzing social change is best done by using repeated cross-sectional data and by including individual level variables, time, and time-dependent macro variables. Furthermore, interest often focuses on whether the effects of explanatory variables change over time, e.g. the impact of education on one’s social position. We argue that multilevel models with time as context best meet these requirements. However, the methods for applying a multilevel approach to study time-dependent social processes are relatively poorly developed and therefore rarely used. Instead, most social change related analyses of repeated cross-sectional data, such as APC models or changing effect models, include time as an individual level variable and thereby neglect the contextual characteristics of time and changes at the macro level. In contrast, pooled time series analysis does not take account of individuals and micro level effects. Thus, the aim of this paper is to overcome these shortcomings by adopting a new approach to social change studies. We describe the application of multilevel analysis with years as contextual units on a step-by-step basis and emphasize the substantive advantages of each model for the study of social change

Parental resources and heritability as factors shaping children's health: An analysis of twins' self-rated health using TwinLife

We assess the relative and joint contributions of genetic and environmental factors on health during childhood and assume that parental resources are part of the environmental factors shaping children's health. We discuss theoretical background and empirical evidence concerning the effects of parental resources and heritability on children's health. Based on these findings we formulate six hypotheses guiding our empirical analysis, using data from TwinLife, a nationally representative sample of same sex twin pairs in Germany. We analyze self-rated health of 1,584 twin pairs aged 4-18. We did find strong support for the idea that parental resources influence children's health: household income and fathers' education consistently show positive effects. In contrast to our expectation, we did not find that genetic factors influence the health of well-off children less than the health of children living in families with lower SES. We also did not find that the genetic influence on health increases during childhood and adolescence. On the contrary our results indicate that the role played by genetic factors diminishes whereas environmental factors gain importance for health of children while growing up. This finding is good news for those interested in improving health chances of children from lower SES backgrounds because it demonstrates the malleability of children's health. The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1136896/full#supplementary-materia

Access to and documentation of publicly financed survey data

"The topic of this paper is access to and documentation of survey data financed through public funds. We distinguish between four types of publicly financed survey data: (1) Academic survey data from the national or international research infrastructures; (2) data from DFG projects or similarly funded projects; (3) survey data collected in research projects funded by the Federal State and the Länder (Ressortforschung); (4) Population and Household surveys from national and international statistical agencies. For each of these types of data we describe the current situation and present recommendations for future developments." (author's abstract

Determinanten und Einkommenseffekte beruflicher Weiterbildung - Eine Analyse mit Daten des Mikrozensus 1993, 1998 und 2003

Berufliche Fort- und Weiterbildung hat in den letzten Jahren erheblich an Bedeutung gewonnen. Die Gründe hierfür liegen im ständigen, immer schnelleren, technischen und organisatorischen Wandel der Arbeitswelt und in der zunehmenden Alterung der Bevölkerung. In diesem Aufsatz werden anhand von Daten der Mikrozensen 1993, 1998 und 2003 verschiedene Faktoren untersucht, die einen Einfluss darauf haben, welche Personen sich besonders an beruflicher Weiterbildung beteiligen. Ein Ziel ist es dabei, ein möglichst breites Spektrum an möglichen Einflussgrößen zu berücksichtigen. So werden individuelle, sozio-ökonomische Faktoren einerseits und strukturelle, berufsbezogene Faktoren andererseits miteinbezogen. Neben den Determinanten wird auch untersucht, ob berufliche Weiterbildung sich tatsächlich positiv im Einkommen niederschlägt. Bei der Bearbeitung dieser Fragen werden außerdem einige Spezifika des Mikrozensus als Datensatz für Weiterbildungsanalysen dargestellt. Den theoretischen Rahmen für die Analysen bildet dabei die Humankapitaltheorie. Die aus ihr abgeleiteten Hypothesen finden sich größtenteils auch in den empirischen Ergebnissen bestätigt. So verfügen Teilnehmer an beruflicher Weiterbildung über ein höheres Einkommen als Nichtteilnehmer. Insbesondere Bildung und das berufliche Umfeld haben einen starken Einfluss auf die Beteiligung an beruflicher Weiterbildung. Sozial benachteiligte Gruppen wie Geringqualifizierte oder Ausländer sind in Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen weniger stark vertreten als Hochqualifizierte oder Deutsche. Diese Ergebnisse finden sich zu allen drei Zeitpunkten bestätigt. Veränderungen im Zeitverlauf fallen zumeist eher gering aus. Ein wichtiges Ergebnis ist also, dass berufliche Weiterbildung zwar positiv mit dem Einkommen korreliert, aber andererseits soziale Ungleichheit noch verstärkt anstatt dieser entgegenzuwirken.Weiterbildung; Mikrozensus; Einkommenseffekte

Parental resources and heritability as factors shaping children's health. An analysis of twins' self-rated health using TwinLife

We assess the relative and joint contributions of genetic and environmental factors on health during childhood and assume that parental resources are part of the environmental factors shaping children's health. We discuss theoretical background and empirical evidence concerning the effects of parental resources and heritability on children's health. Based on these findings we formulate six hypotheses guiding our empirical analysis, using data from TwinLife, a nationally representative sample of same sex twin pairs in Germany. We analyze self-rated health of 1,584 twin pairs aged 4–18. We did find strong support for the idea that parental resources influence children's health: household income and fathers' education consistently show positive effects. In contrast to our expectation, we did not find that genetic factors influence the health of well-off children less than the health of children living in families with lower SES. We also did not find that the genetic influence on health increases during childhood and adolescence. On the contrary our results indicate that the role played by genetic factors diminishes whereas environmental factors gain importance for health of children while growing up. This finding is good news for those interested in improving health chances of children from lower SES backgrounds because it demonstrates the malleability of children's health

How secularized is Germany? Cohort and comparative perspectives

"The author seeks to answer the question 'How secularized is Germany?' on the basis of different perspectives and databases. The meaning of the term secularization is limited for this study to the decline of religiosity and its consequences, and a distinction is made between church-related and individual religiosity. First, evidence for the decline of church-related religiosity in Germany is presented. Next, it is shown that individual religiosity, i.e. religiosity not necessarily related to organized religion, is also declining. Then the analysis is extended to investigate the relationship between religiosity and non-religious attitudes. Taking two illustrative examples, it is claimed that religion today is far less salient for the way we live and see the world than it has been in the past. Finally, the focus of the analysis is broadened to an international perspective in which Germany is compared with other countries. The author ends with some thoughts on the future of secularization in Germany." (author's abstract

Measuring Social Networks and Social Resources: An Exploratory ISSP Survey around the World

This publication documents the development of the ISSP module for the year 2017 titled "Social Networks and Social Resources". The authors begin by discussing instruments that have been developed to measure social relationships and networks. Subsequently, the conceptual framework underlying the module is presented. For the assessment and selection of items for the final module the authors can draw on a rich set of comparative survey data from pretests in China, Taiwan, France, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Great Britain, United States and Venezuela. Based on these data measures for all concepts of the theoretical model are derived and preliminary analysis of their validity, reliability and cross-national equivalence are performed. The publication ends with a description of items finally selected for the 2017 ISSP module and some suggestions for analyzing these data.Diese Publikation dokumentiert die Entwicklung des ISSP-Moduls für das Jahr 2017 mit dem Titel "Social Networks and Social Resources". Die Autoren diskutieren zunächst Instrumente, die zur Messung sozialer Beziehungen und Netzwerke entwickelt wurden. Anschließend wird der dem Modul zugrunde liegende konzeptionelle Rahmen vorgestellt. Für die Bewertung und Auswahl der Fragen für das endgültige Modul können die Autoren auf einen umfangreichen Satz vergleichender Umfragedaten aus Pretests in China, Taiwan, Frankreich, Deutschland, der Schweiz, der Türkei, Großbritannien, den USA und Venezuela zurückgreifen. Basierend auf diesen Daten werden Messungen für alle Konzepte des theoretischen Modells abgeleitet und eine vorläufige Analyse ihrer Gültigkeit, Zuverlässigkeit und länderübergreifenden Äquivalenz durchgeführt. Die Veröffentlichung endet mit einer Beschreibung der schließlich für das ISSP-Modul 2017 ausgewählten Fragen und einigen Vorschlägen zur Analyse dieser Daten