LifE45 - Socialization, Human Development and Intergenerational Transmission across the Life Span

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Werner Georg (†); Professor Dr. Wolfgang Lauterbach
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2011 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 193752662

Our project contributes to key components of the sociological and developmental psychological literature: On the one hand we aim at investigating long-term consequences of socialization experiences in adolescence on early and middle adulthood. On the other hand, we extend the research focus by considering intergenerational transmission processes of values, attitudes and professional and educational careers of family members. To address these research issues, we use data of the LifE-study (Pathways from late childhood to adulthood) until age 45. This study is unique in several ways: First, the data spans a time frame of 33 years, covering age 12 through to age 45 (1979 - 2012). Second, the very high response rate of 86% (N = 1,367) in 2012 leads to a high-quality database for the planned long-term longitudinal analysis. Finally, due to an additional survey of the children of the main cohort, we were able to realize a three-generation-study with information about the parents of the main cohort (G1, mean age = 78 years), information about the main cohort (G2, mean age = 45 years) and information about their children (G3, aged 12 -17 years). Thus, this approach provides us with an excellent basis to study intergenerational relationships and transmission processes. Due to the high response rate not only from the main cohort but also from the children sample (85%, N = 583) we now possess a unique dataset that allows us to examine over 470 familial intergenerational triads. Conceptually, key aspects of education and professional biographies, social life-courses, cultural and political attitudes as well as personality development were measured. Theoretically, we focus on three principles of the life-course and human development literature: First, we investigate if developmental trajectories follow an endogenous causal chain. Second, we examine « linked lives » in the life-course perspective. Third, we contribute to a better understanding of how intergenerational stability or change plays a role in generations of families. Thus, we not only analyze development in single domains but extend the field by means of investigating cross-domain effects in a lifespan perspective. Furthermore, psychological constructs (such as motivation, psychological health or psychosocial competencies) and social contexts (such as families, romantic relationships, friendships or work relations) are investigated comprehensively which facilitates the prediction of differential developmental trajectories above and beyond structural descriptions of the life course. Finally, the life study permits to analyze cultural and intergenerational transmission effects and -processes with information from three generations of the same family.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Partner Organisation: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Helmut Fend; Dr. Urs Grob; Professorin Dr. Katharina Maag Merki