(in German)

In spring 2017, infas Institute for Applied Social Sciences (infas Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft GmbH) conducted a follow-up survey within the scope of the research project "Mental health at work (S-MGA II)" on behalf of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, BAuA) following up on the representative employee survey of approximately 4 500 individuals in 2011/2012.

The survey mainly focuses on current employability of employees as well as their current situation at work five years after the first interview. The follow-up survey uses the same internationally established scales as the previous survey five years ago.
The population of the data collection consisted of all employees subject to social insurance contribution. The sample for the first survey was based on all employees aged 31 to 60 who had been registered as socially insured at the German Federal Employment Agency (BA) on the 31st December 2010. The face-to-face survey was based on a municipality sample proportional to the population thus distributing across the entire Federal Republic of Germany.

This survey is designed as a panel study where the respondents were asked at the end of the first interview for their written consent to save their addresses for a follow-up study.

Measures for panel maintenance took place three times in between those two data collections. Addresses out of date were sent to the respective registration offices for an update. The 2017 survey addressed all individuals with valid written consent for address storage (panel declaration).

All remaining 3 876 panel participants received an information prior to field start about the upcoming interviews. As in the previous wave, all respondents were interviewed by means of a laptop (CAPI). In order to support the measurement, the interviewers presented a list booklet for complex response and item sets. Sensitive questions about the psychosocial situation were placed in a four-sided self-administered questionnaire. The respondents completed this drop-off during the interview and handed it over to the interviewer in a sealed envelope. A completes self-administered questionnaire is available for 95 percent of all cases.

Interviews were conducted between February and May 2017. 2 640 valid interviews were realised in total corresponding to a response rate of almost 70 percent.

All survey participants received an incentive of 20 Euros as a thank-you for their participation.

Please download the complete report "Mental health at work (S-MGA II)" (in German only).