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    Introduction to R from ERFI1

    Introductory kit for using survey data with the R language - Erfi1

    For now, this training kit is available in French only.

    It is designed for beginners in quantitative survey data processing.

    It can be used in total autonomy as a self-study, or as a self-training course or as part of an accompanied training program, with a modular duration from 6h to 12h.

    Based on a Fichier Pédagogique Anonyme (FPA) from wave 1 of the Étude des Relations Familiales et Intergénérationnelles (Erfi), it aims to help learners reproduce a simplified version of figure 1 from Arnaud Régnier-Loilier's article “How often do we see our parents?”, published in 2006 in the journal Population & Sociétés.

    Using the R software and its RStudio interface, the kit will address :

    • specific aspects of survey data processing (weighting, recoding, handling missing values, etc.)
    • concepts of flat sorting and cross-sorting
    • simple graphical representations (stacked bars)

    All the elements making up the kit can be found below:

    • detailed training description (in French) : link
    • training aids containing all the pedagogical content : link
    • anonymous data set and metadata : link
    • associated documentation (survey questionnaire, code dictionary
    • article by A. RÉGNIER-LOILIER, A (2006). How often do we see our parents? Population & Sociétés, 2006/9 N° 427, pp. 1-4. 

    • To highlight the opportunities for research in the humanities and social sciences offered by the databases collected as part of LifeObs, using the ERFI survey carried out by INED and INSEE in 2005 as an example.
    • To familiarise participants with the use of real survey data and its specific features by replicating the initial results obtained from the Erfi survey data published in an article written by Arnaud Régnier-Loilier in 2006 in the journal Population et Sociétés: ‘How often do we see our parents?
    • To introduce participants to the use of the R language and its R-Studio interface for the statistical processing of survey data.

    • Survey name: Study of family and intergenerational relations (Erfi-Vague 1)
    • Survey date: 2005
    • Producer(s): Institut National des Etudes Démographiques (Ined) and Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (Insee)
    • Universe: Men and women aged 18 to 79 inclusive (age on 12/31/2005), living in an ordinary household in their main residence in metropolitan France.
      Sample size: 10,079
    • Survey included in an international program: French version of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) program
    • Anonymous data and metadata: 86 variables (link). This is an FPA: simplified file from the FPR / pseudonymized dataset, for research use only.

    The Study of Family and Intergenerational Relations (Erfi) is the French version of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) of international longitudinal surveys launched by the UN in the early 2000s.

    Targeting people aged between 18 and 79, the general aim of ERFI is to describe the dynamics of family construction (fertility, unions, break-ups, family recomposition) and to explain the mechanisms involved, in particular by studying the role played by relations between men and women and intergenerational relations. Data is collected in over twenty countries (mainly in Europe), using a standardised questionnaire.

    In France, INSEE and INED carried out the first round of surveys (Erfi-1) in three waves (2005, 2008, 2011). A second round of surveys (Erfi-2), based on a very similar methodology, will begin in France in 2023.

    Survey website: https://erfi.site.ined.fr/