BiPsy Monitor

More information about the project

Empirical studies show that currently about half of all students have mental health problems. Many students suffer from mental disorders such as depression, anxiety or eating disorders, which make it difficult for them to attend classes regularly. As a result of the COVID pandemic, which has been in place since spring 2020, the health situation of students has once again worsened significantly: psychosomatic complaints such as headaches, abdominal pain, and anxiety symptoms have risen steadily among 7- to 17-year-olds over the course of the pandemic (Kaman et al., 2023). Overall, the proportion of children and adolescents with low quality of life has nearly tripled (ibid.).

At the same time, there are too few support and counseling services for children and adolescents. This is shown, among other things, by the current results of the Robert Bosch Stiftung's German School Barometer. These findings are alarming and underline the importance of schools for health promotion and prevention (KMK, 2012), since severe mental health problems in childhood and adolescence can have serious serious and long-lasting negative effects on the social development and educational biography.

The interdisciplinary project BiPsy addresses this issue and examines

1. the psychosocial care structures at schools and in the context of outpatient psychotherapy (University of Leipzig | Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology | Prof. Dr. Julian Schmitz | Monitor),
2. possible barriers to the use of these care structures (Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media | Hanover Center for Health Communication | Prof. Dr. Eva Baumann | Deep Dive I) and
3. the relationship between teaching quality and students' well-being at school (University of Leipzig | Educational Psychology with a focus on teaching, learning and development | Prof. Dr. Saalbach and Dr. Franziska Greiner-Döchert | Deep Dive II).

In our project, we would like to find out about students' well-being at school and what influences it in everyday school life. Our goal is to create an empirical basis for the development of long-term measures to counteract mental health problem. To this end, we would like to survey students in the 5th and 7th grades.

 

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS AND LINKS

• Moser, S., Lewalter, D., Saalbach, H., Köller, O., & Walper, S. (2021). Corona-Krise als Herausforderung für das Bildungswesen. Perspektiven aus Sicht der Bildungswissenschaften. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 68(4), 267-270. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2378/peu2021.art21d
• Gunzenhauser, C., & Saalbach, H. (2021). Erste Schuljahre im Schatten der Pandemie: Was haben Grundschulkinder erlebt und was kommt nun auf sie zu?. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 68(4), 280-286. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2378/peu2021.art18d
• Interview mit Prof. Dr. Henrik Saalbach zu Auswirkungen der Pandemie auf schulische Fähigkeiten von Grundschulkindern: https://www.uni-leipzig.de/newsdetail/artikel/psychologe-saalbach-die-elternhaeuser-mussten-einiges-abfangen-2022-01-19