Transitions and Old Age Potential (TOP) - 1st, 2nd and 3rd Wave

In terms of content, the second wave TOP focuses on the transitions into retirement, the realisation of job intentions, particularly in the labour market, as part of a multi-stage model of action, and the change in the potential of older adults over time. Like the first wave, the repeat survey was conducted by the Umfragezentrum Bonn (uzbonn) on behalf of the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). In addition to measures to reduce the bias from panel mortality and to increase utilisation, longitudinal weighting methods were used which, among other things, adjust for selective participation probabilities in the second wave.

In the third wave of TOP, conducted in 2019, a total of 1,561 interviews were completed out of the 2,455 people who agreed to be interviewed again in the second wave. In the third wave, the partners of the target persons were also interviewed. Thus, a dyadic study design was realised in the cross-section of the third wave.

A total of 576 interviews were completed at the couple level. The thematic focus of this dyadic survey is the joint transition into retirement. Measures to ensure the quality of the samples and the methodological feasibility of the dyadic study design were already implemented in the run-up to the third wave, e.g. longitudinal weighting procedures to adjust for selective drop-outs between the survey waves.

The third wave of TOP was also conducted by the Bonn Survey Centre (uzbonn) on behalf of the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB).