The original questionnaire was developed with input from GGP contributors and published in 2005. It introduced several innovations, including a panel dimension, a broader age range (18-79), new conceptualizations of factors influencing fertility and family decisions, and the adoption of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. It was used in nearly 20 countries during GGS-I.
Additionally, the Contextual Database was developed as a key instrument to analyze micro-macro linkages. This original questionnaire was used in nearly 20 countries during Round 1 (GGS-I). An overview of the survey instrument and assessment of this first round of data collection can be found in the publications listed below.
In 2009, the GGP was awarded a Design Study grant to further develop the GGP as a research infrastructure. During this period, a questionnaire working group (2009-12) was formed to make small amendments to the questionnaire, incorporating lessons learned from the assessment of Round 1. Key changes introduced included a new social network module, measures of how societal constraints and social policies influence decisions on family formation and retirement, and a personality module.
An overview of the changes can be found in Caporali (2017). This new version was tested online in a small pilot survey in Slovenia and a similar version was used in Belarus (2017), Latvia (pilot 2018), and Kazakhstan (2019).
Spanning from 2017-2020 and funded by a European Commission grant, this phase involved extensive testing and amendments of the questionnaire. The intermediate version was coded in Blaise and tested in the Push-to-Web Three-country Pilot.
A new Questionnaire Task Force made further refinements based on pilot results and user feedback, focusing on reducing the length for web surveys while preserving the questionnaire’s integrity. This version was used in Moldova (2020).
A second Questionnaire Task Force was appointed in 2019 to approve final amendments and focus on reducing the questionnaire length given that the Task Force was unanimous in that the questionnaire was too long, especially for a web version. This was particularly difficult work in view of the history of the questionnaire (where all sections and subsections had a clear purpose). At the end, the Task Force agreed on a set of cuts which preserved the integrity of the version 3.0 questionnaire, but did introduce cuts in some of the long sections (e.g. Values and Attitudes), and sections which were deemed particularly demanding for the respondents.
The Baseline Questionnaire 3.0.7 includes the integral version with questions marked for deletion and some optional questions to maintain a proper record of changes.
The Baseline Questionnaire 3.1 excludes the questions marked for deletion and serves as the foundation for countries conducting GGS-II. Over the years, minor adjustments have been made. An overview of the development of version 3.1 will be available soon.
UNECE (2005). Generations and Gender Programme: Survey Instru- ments. Online: https://www.unece.org/pau/pub/ggp_survey_instru- ments.html
Vergauwen, J., Wood, J., De Wachter, D., & Neels, K. (2015). Quality of demographic data in GGS Wave 1. Demographic Research, 32, 723- 774. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26350130
Fokkema, T., Kveder, A., Hiekel, N., Emery, T., & Liefbroer, A. C. (2016). Generations and Gender Programme Wave 1 data collection: An over- view and assessment of sampling and fieldwork methods, weighting procedures, and cross-sectional representativeness. Demographic Re- search, 34, 499-524. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26332044
Caporali, A. (2017). Innovations introduced with the new Questionnaire. Online: https://www.ggp-i.org/data/methodology/
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