TY - RPRT A1 - Kreyenfeld, Michaela A1 - Bastin, Sonja T1 - Blurred memory, deliberate misreporting, or “true tales”? How different survey methods affect respondents’ reports of partnership status at first birth N2 - This paper examines the reliability of biographical information gathered retrospectively. It draws on data from the German Family Panel (pairfam), which collected information on the partnership status at first birth using two different methods. The first method is based on data on partnership and fertility histories collected retrospectively. The second method uses data gathered through the use of a “landmark question” on the respondents’ partnership status when their first children were born. We find that in almost 20 percent of the cases, the information collected using the first method did not correspond with the information collected using the second method. Partnership dissolution and “turbulence” in the partnership biography are strong predictors for discrepancies in the information gathered through the two different survey methods. We conclude by drawing attention to the limitations of the retrospective collection of partnership histories at a time when divorce and separation rates are increasing. T2 - MPIDR Working Paper WP-2013-017 KW - Germany, family Y1 - 2013 UR - https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2013-017.pdf ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Kreyenfeld, Michaela A1 - Bastin, Sonja A1 - Schnor, Christine T1 - Diversität der Familienformen in Ost- und Westdeutschland T2 - Familie(n) heute : Entwicklungen, Kontroversen, Prognosen N2 - Der Band zeigt aktuelle Entwicklungen und greift familien- sowie paarsoziologische Diskurse und Kontroversen auf. Er informiert über Familienrealitäten, Geschlechterverhältnisse, Leitbildwandel und Alltagspraxen in Familie und Paar. Die Beiträge bieten dem Fachpublikum sowie Studierenden Überblick über den aktuellen Diskussionsstand und laden ein zur vertiefenden (Eigen-)Forschung. (Buchinhalt, Verlagstext) Y1 - 2012 SN - 978-3-7799-2835-5 N1 - As working paper / Als Arbeitspapier: Free online Access / Freier online Zugriff: http://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2012-001.pdf SP - 116 EP - 197 PB - Beltz Juventa CY - Weinheim [u.a.] ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Kreyenfeld, Michaela A1 - Walke, Rainer A1 - Salzburger, Veronika A1 - Schnor, Christine A1 - Bastin, Sonja A1 - Kuhnt, Anne-Kristin T1 - DemoDiff - Wave 1 : Supplement to the pairfam Data Manual T2 - MPIDR Technical Report (No. 4/2011) N2 - This document provides a documentation of the data set DemoDiff (Demographic Differences in Life Course Dynamics in Eastern and Western Germany). DemoDiff is a subsample of the German family panel. Y1 - 2011 N1 - Free online Access / Freier online Zugriff: http://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/technicalreports/tr-2011-004.pdf PB - Max-Planck Institut für demografische Forschung CY - Rostock ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kreyenfeld, Michaela A1 - Bastin, Sonja T1 - Reliability of union histories in social science surveys: Blurred memory, deliberate misreporting, or true tales? JF - Advances in Life Course Research N2 - This paper examines the reliability of biographical information gathered retrospectively. It draws on data from the German Family Panel (pairfam), which collected information on the partnership status at first birth using two different strategies. The first strategy was to collect partnership and fertility histories separately in an event history calendar. The second strategy was to ask the respondents directly about their partnership status at first childbirth. We find that in almost 20 percent of the cases, the information collected using the two different strategies did not correspond. The dissolution of a partnership and having a complex partnership biography are strong predictors for discrepancies in the information gathered through the two different strategies. We conclude by discussing the factors that lead to the different outcomes produced by each of the two methods, and the implications of these discrepancies for the study of partnership and fertility behavior in general. Y1 - 2016 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-20899 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2015.11.001 SN - 1040-2608 N1 - This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Advances in Life Course Research. VL - 27 IS - March 2016 SP - 30 EP - 42 ER -