Aim of the pretest:
Question 13 was asked only of those who had indicated in question 11 that they had family members abroad. The aim of the pretest was to find out whether the answer options were unique and disjunctive, i.e., not overlapping. Accordingly, respondents who had selected at least one type of support were asked to elaborate on their answer(s). Furthermore, respondents who indicated that they had not supported family members abroad were asked whether they had been in contact with their family members in any other way.
Findings:
Slightly more than half of the respondents (57.3%) reported that they had not supported any family members abroad in the last twelve months (see Table 16). The forms of support most frequently mentioned by the remaining respondents were "emotional support" (n = 20), "doing organizational things or getting information" (n = 15), and "support in other ways" (n = 15).
In most cases, respondents' answers to the cognitive follow-up questions matched their selected responses:
- "My grandma had to spontaneously look for a new apartment because her previous landlady said it wasn't a good housing relationship and she more or less kicked my grandma out the door as a result. I looked for apartments online and listened to her and tried to reassure her." (TP310, responses: done organizational things for her...; emotionally supported her...)
- "Provided emotional support when she was homesick, sent candy." (TP406, responses: sent to them things they needed; supported them emotionally...)
It was noticeable that some respondents who had selected both the response option "... supported them in other ways" and one or more of the other options did not address in their explanations in which "other ways" they had supported their relatives. They referred exclusively to the more "specific" response options in their explanations, so it remained unclear what they meant by "...supported them in other ways."
- "I listened to my cousin, sharing my joy about my engagement to my life partner. She responded just as joyfully and was grateful to have temporarily made it through her surgeries. I built her up [...]." (TP152, responses: emotionally supported her...; supported her in other ways).
- "Got things they didn't have. Obtained info." (TP174, responses: sent to them things they needed; did organizational things for them or got info; supported them in other ways)
- "You just talk to each other and listen to concerns and when they have problems you give advice and help them find things to do, activities they have difficulty with and you find rather easy yourself.” (TP230, responses: done organizational things for them or obtained information; supported them emotionally...; supported them in other ways).
In addition, one respondent (TP263) only indicated that she had sent money, but selected both "sent them things they needed" and "sent them or transferred them money." Thus, it remained unclear whether the test person had sent her relatives other things besides money or used both response categories to report sending the money.
Those respondents who indicated that they had not supported their family members abroad in the past twelve months either said that they were in contact with them (mainly via the Internet or by telephone) but had not supported them or that they were not (no longer) in contact with them. These respondents' explanations do not indicate that they should have selected a different response option.
