TwinLife Documentation TwinLife Documentation TwinLife Documentation
  • Overview and getting started
    • Table of content
    • Getting started
    • Data access & documentation
  • 1. About TwinLife
    • 1.1 Basic Concept
    • 1.2 Study Design and Sample Structure
    • 1.3 Where and how to get the Data
  • 2. Documentation of the study
    • 2.1 Data Documentation Website and ShortGuide
    • 2.2 Documentation within the Data Sets
    • 2.3 paneldata.org
    • 2.4 Codebooks
    • 2.5 Technical Report Series, Methodology Reports, and Working Paper Series
  • 3. Data Structure
    • 3.1 Data Formats and Data Files
    • 3.2 Person Types
    • 3.3 System of Variable Names
    • 3.4 ID Variables, Wave and Data Collection Identifiers
    • 3.5 Missing Types and their Meanings
    • 3.6 Delivered Para Data
    • 3.7 Weights
    • 3.8 Pecularities of Data
    • 3.9 How to match the Data Files
    • 3.10 Matching information from the parent-about-child questionnaire to the child's data set
  • 4. Check Routines
    • 4.1 Check routines
    • 4.2 Data Adjustment
  • 5. Generated Variables and Scales
    • 5.1 Generated Variables
    • 5.2 Generated Scales
  • 6. Publications and Citation
    • 6.1 Publications and Literature Database
    • 6.2 Citation
  • 7. Useful Links
  • Terms and Privacy
  • Downloads
  • Start
  • Overview and getting started
    • Table of content
    • Getting started
    • Data access & documentation
  • 1. About TwinLife
    • 1.1 Basic Concept
    • 1.2 Study Design and Sample Structure
    • 1.3 Where and how to get the Data
  • 2. Documentation of the study
    • 2.1 Data Documentation Website and ShortGuide
    • 2.2 Documentation within the Data Sets
    • 2.3 paneldata.org
    • 2.4 Codebooks
    • 2.5 Technical Report Series, Methodology Reports, and Working Paper Series
  • 3. Data Structure
    • 3.1 Data Formats and Data Files
    • 3.2 Person Types
    • 3.3 System of Variable Names
    • 3.4 ID Variables, Wave and Data Collection Identifiers
    • 3.5 Missing Types and their Meanings
    • 3.6 Delivered Para Data
    • 3.7 Weights
    • 3.8 Pecularities of Data
    • 3.9 How to match the Data Files
    • 3.10 Matching information from the parent-about-child questionnaire to the child's data set
  • 4. Check Routines
    • 4.1 Check routines
    • 4.2 Data Adjustment
  • 5. Generated Variables and Scales
    • 5.1 Generated Variables
    • 5.2 Generated Scales
  • 6. Publications and Citation
    • 6.1 Publications and Literature Database
    • 6.2 Citation
  • 7. Useful Links

TwinLife Data Documentation

Information Website for Researchers
The TwinLife Data Documentation is intended to give both an overview of the longitudinal twin family study TwinLife and a short instruction on how to use the TwinLife data. It corresponds to the contents of the ➔Short Guide.
The following pages contain information about the project and links to various helpful documents that should facilitate the first steps into working with the TwinLife data. For a very quick description of everything you need to get started with the TwinLife Dataset see the Getting Started section below.
All additional documents of data documentation are provided in the downloads section.
Information for Researchers

For the scientific community, we installed this English data documentation website, where all important information about Twinlife can be found. Please use the content navigation on the left to find your way through the documentation, or use the search bar on the bottom left to find information on specific topics.

Under ➔ Publications, you can find an overview of all scientific publications known to us, which have been published around the TwinLife project or with the data of the project.

For a short overview of the Twinlife project you will find some basic information below. Clicking the headings will open the content.

What is TwinLife?
TwinLife is a 12-year representative behavior genetic study investigating the development of social inequality.

The long-term project has begun in 2014 and surveyed more than 4,000 pairs of twins and their families by the first wave regarding their different stages of life on a yearly basis. Not only social, but also genetic mechanisms as well as covariations and interactions between these two parameters can be examined with the help of identical and fraternal twins.
 
In order to document the individual development of different parameters it is important to examine a family extensively over the course of several years. Six important contextual points are focused on: Education and academic performance, career and labour market attainment, integration and participation in social, cultural and political life, quality of life and perceived capabilities, physical and psychological health, and behavioral issues and deviant behavior. This way, the collected data can give insight into a multitude of questions concerning the development of social inequalities and will be made available to the scientific community.
Where can I find further information and a documentation of the data?
We now provide a detailed English documentation for the scientific community at www.twin-life.de/documentation!

Other relevant documentation can be found

  • at the GESIS data catalogue
  • on https://paneldata.org/twinlife
  • in our "Technical Reports Series"
How can I get the data?
Since January 2019, the data of the whole sample (4,097 twin families) has been available as Scientific Use Files (SUF). For scientists they are available for free (after application) at the data catalogue of GESIS where you can also find further information about the application and the content of the SUF.

Currently, the second wave has been published with data from the first two household and telephone surveys, so that longitudinal analyses are already possible. The data of the first Covid-19-related questionnaire from summer 2020 have also been released.

The data of further survey waves will be conditioned in the upcoming years and they will be provided to reserachers. Because of this, comprehensive analyses will be possible (for example on the developmental courses of the twins).
 
A short flyer containing the most important information on the data release can be downloaded here.


Please send the filled and signed data application form (please download from GESIS under "Data & Documents") via mail, fax or by mailing route to:


GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
Datenservice
Unter Sachsenhausen 6-8
50667 Köln
GERMANY
Fax: ++49-221-47694-8420
Mail: datenservice.das@gesis.org (please contact if you have any questions about the application of the data, too)

The data has been anonymized, so no identification of the participants is possible. The data also has been checked for plausibility and consistency.

Getting Started Downloads section Publications Study contents
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