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At the Austrian Institute of Family Studies we are currently working in the EU-funded project Digigen. A consortium of eight universities focus on how children and young people of the Digital Generation use and are affected by the technological transformations in their everyday lives.

Results from the first wave of data collection in the study “Wege in die Zukunft” (2016-2022) has been published! In this project, we analyse the situation of students in "Neue Mittelschule" (lower secondary school) in Vienna in the last year of compulsory schooling. This is the time, when our participants have to decide about their future education or vocational training.

The Austrian Nationalbank has approved our grant proposal! Over the next two years we will investigate how job aspirations of adolescents differ by ethinicity, social class and gender and how different aspirational levels can explain pathways to education and employment. Based on a mixed methods longitudinal study, we also reflect methodologically how such a comparatively vulnerable group can be included in research. We aim for a nuanced understanding of social inequality and its measurement.

In our recent publication in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Eva-Maria Schmidt, Ulrike Zartler and I reflect on ontological and epistemological implications of triangulating perspectives in family research.

Multiple perspective interviews (MPIs) involve interviewing members of a social group separately and triangulating their accounts during analysis to gain insights into the functioning of such groups (e.g. families). So far, there has been little engagement with the specific challenges of MPI research during the analysis, particularly with dissonant data. To illustrate the importance of this aspect, we draw on the triangulation metaphor and related epistemological and ontological perspectives, which determine analytic choices and thus yield different forms of knowledge. We show how triangulating perspectives can extend individual-level results, but also how researchers should go beyond a descriptive level of analysis for convergent and dissonant accounts to realize the potential of MPIs. Convergence should not be assumed too hastily, yet, there might be dissonance that cannot be resolved. (Self-)reflection on epistemological views, interpretive practice, and the purpose of MPI as well as their interrelation can increase the strengths of MPI approaches.

The challenge in data analysis often lies in accounting for the multidimensionality and complexity of the data while simultaneously discovering patterns. Integrating and consolidating different types of data during analysis can broaden the perspective and permit obtaining complementary views. This methodological research study on data collection illustrates how one type of data collection generates different types of data, which can be linked and consolidated to reach a better understanding of the topic. Procedures and practicalities are illustrated to offer a good practice example for data integration and consolidation. With the methodological reflection of research practice, I evaluate the consequences for the field of mixed methods research, in which the practicalities of an integrated mixed analysis still need to be elaborated.

If you want to read the whole paper, you can find it in the Journal of Mixed Methods Research.

Advance letters (ALs) are one tool for improving response rates. However, it is not sufficiently clear whether ALs affect nonresponse bias, and how their effect relates to the study topic. (1) The effect of ALs on outcome rates, (2) recruitment effort, (3) their differential effect on subgroups, and (4) their effect on reporting on sensitive topics are examined. The data stem from a split-ballot experiment implemented in ax telephone survey on “Violence against Men.” The study comprises responses from approximately 950 men aged 21–70 years. The results indicate a positive effect of ALs on response, cooperation, and contact rates, and higher response rates among older respondents. Self-reports on sensitive topics were not affected by the ALs.

Read the recently published paper in the International Journal of Public Opinion Reserach.

wege in

In the project "Pathways to the Future" a group of researchers from the Institute of Sociology at the University of Vienna study the life course of adolescents in Vienna. We focus on young people who graduated form a "Neue Mittleschule" (lower secondary school). The study contains a qualitative and a quantitative strand. The aim is a wholistic analysis of life chances of adolescents from their own perspective. Specifically, we are interested in transitions after finishing obligatory schooling, integration in education and work, social inequality, options and constraints, social relations and well-being. From a methodological angle, I reflect on ...