German Ageing Survey

Summary

The DEAS reports several issues on volunteering: membership in clubs, frequency of and time spent on voluntary activities in clubs and organisations, and areas of volunteering. As an ageing survey with respondents aged 40 and above, the DEAS gives, in addition, in-detail-information on specialised clubs and organisations for the elderly. The DEAS is a multi-topic data set, therefore these items can be analysed in the context of many other variables, e. g. family structure, socio-economic status, health, attitudes on age, regional indicators. The DEAS provides longitudinal data and because of its cohort-sequential design the analysis of different cohorts regarding volunteering is possible. There is no information on foreigners living in Germany (with the exception of wave 2002) and on people not living in private households – these groups are not in the sample. Nevertheless, it can be pointed out that there is a good documentation (survey instruments, methodological reports, codebooks, correspondence of variables) available on the website of the Research Data Centre (https://www.dza.de/en/fdz/research-data-centre-of-the-german-ageing-survey-fdz-deas/deas-documentation.html).

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Other: Cohort-sequential design

Data gathering method
Face-to-face
Self administered questionnaire

Access to data

Conditions of access
Available for scientific, non-profit use

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
anonymised microdata

Formats available
SPSS, STATA

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
Wave 1: Data collected in 1996 (DOI 10.5156/DEAS.1996.M.001) with a sample size of 4, 838 individuals. Wave 2: Data collected in 2002 (DOI 10.5156/DEAS.2002.M.001) with a base sample of 3,084 individuals, a migrant sample of 586 individuals, and a panel sample of 1,524 individuals. Wave 3: Data collected in 2008 (DOI 10.5156/DEAS.2008.M.001) with a base sample of 6,205 individuals and a panel sample of 1,995 individuals. Wave 4: Data collected in 2011 with a panel sample of 4, 855 individuals. Wave 5: Data will be collected in 2014. A new base sample will be drawn and the panel sample will be reassessed.

First year of collection
1996

Stratification if applicable
age (40-54, 55-69, 70-85 years), sex, region (East/West)

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
national, NUTS3-level (Kreise)

Age range
baseline samples: 40-85 years; Panel sample: 40-90 years

Statistical representativeness
Other, please specify

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The survey looks at memberships in associations for older people and in other associations, the duration of membership, frequency of volunteering, honorary office, expenditure of time for volunteering, barriers to volunteering, volunteering in the past, being interested in (more) volunteering, area of volunteering and informal help for others.

Linkage

Standardisation
Most instruments are standardised questions and scales (e.g. ISCO-88: International Standard Classification of Occupation).

Possibility of linkage among databases
Not possible

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
Raw data is cleaned by project organisers and checked for inconsistencies, data is further checked by the Research Data Centre, then the scientific use file (SUF) is created.

Breaks
Research group changed between first and second wave (1996: Freie Universität Berlin, since 2002: German Centre of Gerontology). In 1996, interviews were conducted via PAPI, since 2002, however, they are conducted via CAPI.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
Due to a change of the research group, the documentation for 1996 is incomplete.

Governance

Contact information

Research Data Centre of the German Ageing Survey, German Centre of Gerontology (DZA Berlin)
Manfred-von-Richthofen-Straße 2
12101 Berlin Germany Phone: +49 (0)30 - 260740-0
Email: fdz(at)dza.de
Url: http://www.dza.de/en/fdz/research-data-centre-of-the-german-ageing-survey-fdz-deas/access-to-deas-data.html

Timeliness, transparency
The scientific use file is available about 2 years after data collection.