Data collection
How are data collected?
The target population of JTEPS is defined as 21- to 22-year-old residents throughout Japan, thus covering individuals with and without university affiliation, i.e. in or out of education, training and employment. The JTEPS follows this cohort for three years marking significant phases in early adulthood represented by three subdomains: education, transition, employment. The data collection follows a quantitatively driven sequential design (QUAN → qual), with quantitative data collection at three points in time (JTEPSQUAN) and follow-up qualitative data collection in-between the questionnaire surveys at two points in time (JTEPSqual; see Concept & Design).
Participation in the first wave is the prerequisite for staying in the panel. To avoid "mode effects" and ensure the comparability and harmonization of the newly collected with the existing data, all data are conducted in the same way, via online surveys (JTEPSQUAN) and semi-structured interviews (JTEPSqual), respectively.
The quantitative data will be collected via a professional survey company located in Japan. The qualitative interviews will be directly conducted by the JTEPS research group and shall provide in-depth data on individual life courses beyond the limited frame of the quantitative survey and help situate the quantitative findings. Based on a first evaluation of the first wave of the JTEPSQUAN-sample, we select a limited qualitative sample of male and female youth of different sociodemographic origin, who show typical and a-typical biographies up to this point. Respondents shall exemplarily represent individual pathways of Japanese students in the Japanese society (and abroad for those who leave). They differ from each other regarding individual characteristics (e.g., type of international mobility, family background, educational biography, post-graduation pathways and current status). We target samples of 30 individuals to be interviewed in semi-structured interviews and by method of narrative inquiry. All interviews will be recorded and later transcribed and stored.