Research Programs / Projects

Parents and Children, Men and Women in Family and Society

General coordinator of the GGP in Russia - Cand.Sc., T. Maleva, Director of the IISP

Academic adviser of the GGP in Russia - Cand.Sc., S. Zakharov, Head of the Laboratory of Population Estimates and Projections, Center for Demography and Human Ecology, Institute for Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences

GGS Project Director in Russia - Cand.Sc., O. Sinyavskaya, IISP Deputy Director

Project experts: Cand.Sc. S. Zakharov, Cand.Sc. D. Ibragimova, Cand.Sc. V.Magun, Cand.Sc. T. Maleva, Cand.Sc. L.Ovtcharova, Cand.Sc. L.ProkofвЂTMeva, Cand.Sc.. O.Sinyavskaya

Funding: the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, Max-Planck Institute for Demographic Research – Max-Plank-Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Wissenschaften e.V, Independent Institute for Social Policy

Partners: International Consortium of the GGP, the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, Max-Planck Institute for Demographic Research, The Federal Service of Statistics (Goskomstat), Center for Demography and Human Ecology (CDHE) of the Institute for Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Demoscope Independent Research Center - the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS), Institute of Social and Economic Studies of Population of the Russian Academy of Sciences, “Levada Analytical Center”

Objective

Fertility and mortality changes have principally transformed the age structure of industrially developed countries. The most significant socio-economic consequence of such a change in demographic balance between generations is the principle redistribution of national income in favor of elderly population.

In order to detailed research of these problems the international Generations and Gender Program/Survey was started in 2001, initiated by the Population Activities Unit of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (for more detailed information please enter (http://www.unece.org/ead/pau/pau/pau_h.htm).

The program is aimed at cross-national, comparative, multidisciplinary, longitudinal study of the dynamics of the family and family relationships, along with and socio-economic conditions of household functioning in the contemporary industrialized countries, in particular in Europe, North America and Japan. At present more than 20 countries showed their interest to participate in the Program. Russia takes an active part in the program. In October 2001 the Russian National Committee was set up in Moscow to implement the international program (Russian title of the project is Parents and Children, Men and Women in Family and Society). The Committee consists of: the Independent Institute for Social Policy (IISP), Center for Demography and Human Ecology (CDHE) of the Institute for Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The IISP is the leading organization within the national committee. The Federal Agency of Statistics (Rosstat) monitors the activity of the Russian National Committee.

Project Description

The first stage of the program is a large-scale sociological survey based on a standard questionnaire unified for all participant countries. The sampling should include not less than 4 000 men and 4 000 women aged 18-75 (79) years for each country. The standard questionnaire for the first wave of the GGS was developed by the working group of the International Consortium. The main survey modules include questions of child bearing and rearing, union formation and break-ups, womenвЂTMs reproductive health, gender balance in the family, labor and economical sphere, employment and income situation of the respondent, his/her partner/spouse and other household members, etc. The core questionnaire and other instruments are available at the United Nations Economic Commission for EuropeвЂTMs web-site http://www.unece.org/ead/pau/ggp/ggs_quest.htm.

In 2002 the IISP has realized a pilot survey in Russia (that time the pilot project was implemented only in Russia and Great Britain from 26 participated countries). Expert group consisting of T. Maleva (head), S.Zakharov, L. Ovtcharova, V.Magun, L.ProkofвЂTMeva, O.Sinyavskaya implemented a great amount of work regarding editing the wording of the questions, substantial editing up to the essential remaking of separate questions. In November-December 2002, the pilot survey of 150 respondents in 4 Russian regions (Moscow, Nizhegorodskaya oblastвЂTM, Vladimirskaya oblastвЂTM, Voronezhskaya oblastвЂTM) was conducted. Proposals of the Russian experts regarding the correction of the questionnaire were for the most part considered, and their activity on he stage of preparation and conducting the pilot survey obtained the highest appraisal for professionalism and effectiveness.

The full-scale Generation and Gender Survey in Russia (Parents and Children, Men and Women in Family and Society) was conducted in June-August 2004 and was financially supported by the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (national sponsor) and Max-Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany (representative of the International Consortium).

The IISP provided expert support of the survey including translation and adaptation of the core questionnaire for Russia. Also as the leading organization within the national GGP/GGS committee the IISP coordinated the survey in Russia. Adaptation of the questionnaire, design of the sample and field works (including data entering) were performed in close cooperation with the Demoscope Independent Research Center (directed by M. Kosolapov and P. Kozyreva) which for more than 10 years has been conducting the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS).

The sampling covers 11261 respondents aged from 18 to 79 years (each respondent represents one household) from 32 regions of Russia ensuring the survey representativeness on a country scale. The specific feature of the GGS sampling in Russia is that it partially includes the RLMS sampling that considerably enlarges the opportunities for the data analysis.

The Russian questionnaire contained all the core questions developed by the GGP International consortium as well as some additional modules developed by the GGP International Consortium and Russian experts. Thus, Russia was the first country who conducted the research strictly observing the International Consortium recommendations and instruments.

The Russian questionnaire consists of 14 modules (household; children; marriage(s)/partnership(s); distribution of household tasks; parents and parental home; pregnancy, sterility and plans to have children; health and well-being; respondentвЂTMs activity and income; partnerвЂTMs activity and income; household possessions, income and transfers; values and attitudes; provision of pensions and pension reform; interviewer observations; interviewer report). The peculiarity of the questionnaire is as follows: it allows obtaining information about the respondent; and also, from his/her words about his/her partner/spouse, members of the respondentвЂTMs household, children, living together with the respondent or apart; parents, living together with the respondent or apart. Thus, number of observations under the representatives of the different generations is found to be higher than the samples volume.

The information about the respondent and his/her partner/spouse is presented in more detailed version, questions of the respondentвЂTMs partner being symmetric to those of the respondent and include:

• Socio-demographic characteristics: age, sex, place of birth, place of residence at the moment of inquiry, duration of the permanent residence in given household, education of the respondent and his/her spouse (partner); composition of the household and senior families: single, widow/widower, divorced, never being married or married / living together with smb.; presence of children, grandchildren, etc.;
• Health characteristics, including information about health restrictions of the respondent and his/her spouse/partner at the moment of inquiry;
• Employment characteristics: a wide range of questions on labor activity and employment of the respondents and their partners (including questions of : presence and form of the labor contract, seniority, branch affiliation, occupation, working schedule, primary and secondary employment, etc.), and also questions of participation in the pension system;
• Descriptions of income and property: sources, amount and structure of income; type, amount and regularity of pension payments (if granted); amount and regularity of wage/salary payments ( if works); amount of perquisites (if any); other sources of income of the respondent , his/her spouse/partner and household; other types of the state payments or benefits; informal transfers within the household or inter-family transfers; possessions, housing and other tangible assets of the respondentвЂTMs household and living with him/her spouse/partner;
• Pension behavior: For all respondents, whose pension hasnвЂTMt granted yet: strategies of the formation of the obligatory funded part of labor pension; intention to retire depending on different factors (questions addressed directly to the respondents). For pensioners: number of years being a pensioner; number of years being retired; satisfaction with being a pensioner (the respondent only); type and amount of pension benefit; regularity of payments to the respondent and his/her spouse/partner. For non-working and retired respondents: the last job (including branch and occupation) of the respondent and his/her spouse/partner, and also the information about the perquisites, etc. For all working-age respondents: knowledge about the pension reform content and principles of pension accumulations formation, notion of possible income sources after retire. For people with mandatory pension accumulations: possession of the information regarding the current state of his/her individual saving account; intentions regarding pension savings transfer from Pension Fund to private managing companies and private pension funds (at present and in future). For all respondents: present participation in private pension funds, degree of trust to the Pension Fund of RF and private pension funds.
• Financial activity of population: saving activity, including information about forms of saving, participation in voluntary private pension programs, etc.

The uniqueness of the survey is in diversity of the topics covered: gender and intergenerational relationships, conjugal and reproductive behavior of Russian people; issues of pregnancy and barrenness, child-bearing and adoption etc. We can say that Parents and Children, Men and Women in Family and Society is the first survey of a national scale in contemporary Russia covering various aspects of family forming at different stages of life cycle addressed to both men and women of wide age range.

Yet, the survey might be interesting not only to demographers. It embraces economic, labor and pension strategies of respondents, including the household context. Information on education, professional and marital status of respondentвЂTMs parents allows to study the issues of intergenerational social mobility, respondentвЂTMs social background.

Geographic mobility can also be studied due to the questions relating to the date of coming to Russia, actual locality and dwelling. Sociologists and social psychologists can be interested in value orientations and attitudes, questions related to distribution of household tasks and decision making in families etc.

The survey allows not only to thoroughly study the above mentioned issues in each country but provides opportunities for a deep cross-national analysis using standard methods that repeatedly increase its practical value. Besides, it is planned that the present survey would have a panel character and would include three waves, conducted in the interval of three years. To meet this condition the second wave of the GGS in Russia should take place in 2007. The approximate subject of the next, second wave has already determined: questions on education and employment in retrospective context. Russian experts of the Program consider it useful to include in the second survey, in particular, questions concerning migration and pensions and pension reform. The latter will allow creating the unique longitude data base on the process of pension reforms in Russia.

Besides the realization of the survey, since January 2005 the IISP realizes the second part of the “Generations and Gender Program”, namely – the elaboration of the contextual data bases on the social, family and other policies in Russia.

Project News

Newsletter about the project implementation (January, 2005)

Newsletter about the project implementation (June, 2004)

June 13, 2005: At the National Institute for Demographic Research (INED, France), presentation of the project "Parents and Children, Men and Women in Family and Society" within the international Generations and Gender Program, was held. Presentations were made by: Tatyana Maleva, Sergey Zakharov, Oxana Sinyavskaya.
For more detail see PowerPoint presentation.

December 24, 2004 - the IISP has conducted the Russian National Committee meeting on the “Generations and Gender” International Program realization in Russia, devoted to the conclusion of the first wave of the survey “Parents and Children, Men and Women in Family and Society”, accomplished in the frame of the present Program. The survey report was represented by the general coordinator of the GGP in Russia T. Maleva and Scientific adviser of the GGP in Russia, S. Zakharov. Seereport presentation in PowerPoint (1,3 Mb)

September 20-21, 2004 – United Seminar of the contextual data bases development workgroup and national representatives of the GGP member states (Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Russia, France and Chechia) was hold in Max-Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Rostock, Germany). Russia was represented by S. Zakharov and O. Snyavskaya . See report presentation in PowerPoint (112 Kb)

May 24-26, 2004 – The Third annual meeting of “Generations and Gender” Program Informal group was hold in Speces (Greece). Representatives of 25 countries participating in the Program attended the meeting. Russia was represented by O.Sinyavskaya (the IISP), S.Zakharov (CDHE, IEF of the RAS) and O.Antonova (Goskomstat RF). O.Sinyavskaya and S.Zakharov addressed the meeting with the report on the process of the “Parents and Children, Men and Women in Family and Society” project realization. It should be noted that Russia is among the project realization leaders. See report presentation.