A Description of the German General Social Survey Test-Retest Study and a Report on the Stabilities of the Sociodemographic Variables

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Abstract
In this article, a description of the test-retest study as part of the larger 1984 German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) is presented. First, the comparability of the test-retest mirrors the larger ALLBUS study with few exceptions, and an examination of the stability of demographic variables is presented. Although the stability of some of the items was poor (e.g., report of one's own first occupation and father's occupation), most of the other items of central importance to survey recorders (e.g., education or religious identification) had at best minimally acceptable stabilities. The data also show a consistent tendency for the t2- t3 stabilities to be higher than the t1- t2 stabilities, a finding that is discussed and for which a possible rationale is presented.