StaR_MHI is a three-part collaborative project within the expert network of the German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), the University Hospital Halle, the Leibniz Institute of Resilience Research (LIR), the German Youth Institute (DJI), the LMU University Hospital München, the Charité University Hospital Berlin, the University Hospital Jena, the Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo), the Institute of Psychology and the Student Health Management of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg that aims to identify predictors of students’ mental health, validate them through high-frequency longitudinal analyses, and adapt and further develop suitable interdisciplinary intervention platforms for support and guidance.
“The data collected as part of the projects and the measures based on it are intended to benefit students, school pupils and trainees. The initiative aims to improve mental health in the long term by identifying risk factors and promoting resilience through appropriate measures. In this way, the aim is to reduce the number of people dropping out of training and to better prepare young people for an increasingly complex world of work.”
Consortium lead StaR_MHI
StaR_MHI
Cooperation
Mental health in higher education settings is a highly relevant topic. In recent years, a substantial deterioration of the mental well-being of students has been observed in Germany, particularly with regard to depressive and anxiety symptoms as well as general distress. In view of the global polycrisis and societal challenges, this trend continues even after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided. There is a clear need for action to reduce risk factors for unfavorable mental health outcomes after stressor exposure among students and to promote protective factors. The comprehensive and methodologically high-quality synthesis of current research data (evidence) on risk and protective factors of mental health among students is necessary to identify factors that are specifically relevant to students. The findings of this evidence synthesis will inform the design of student-specific interventions at individual, societal and organizational levels.
In a participatory approach, stakeholders such as students, university staff and psychosocial counselors will be involved. Comprehensive searches in resiMETA, a living database of trajectory-based resilience research, will be conducted to identify relevant longitudinal research of the impact of individual, social or organizational factors on mental health after stress exposure in students. The evidence will be evaluated and integrated using a validated rating scheme which has been developed by members of the project team (Schäfer et al., 2024).
As a subproject of the collaborative project Students at Risk for Mental Health Issues (StaR_MHI), work package 1.2 aims to generate an initial overview of the prevalence of mental disorders among university students, the frequency of associated healthcare services utilization, and the involved service providers, based on care-related data from the Research Data Centre (FDZ Gesundheit) at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM).
In addition, developments in these indicators over time will be observed and contextualized, for example with regard to health policy and broader societal developments. The analyses will also allow for the identification of potential differences based on sociodemographic characteristics and other health- or treatment-related factors, such as prescribed medication and the presence of comorbid diagnoses, with the aim of identifying vulnerable groups.
Furthermore, comparisons with panel studies and other results of StaR_MHI work packages may help to identify unmet healthcare needs in large populations. The analyses can also determine which healthcare system institutions students engage with, thereby highlighting potential points of intervention for secondary prevention.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Watzke
Consortium lead StaR_MHI
Clinical and Polyclinic for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
UNIFY
UNIFY researches and promotes student mental health at three university campuses using a mixed-methods approach to establish evidence-based, scalable interventions and foster sustainable cultural change in higher education institutions.
PsychKOMPASS
PsychKOMPASS analyzes psychosocial counseling services for students nationwide, identifies needs and barriers, and, based on this analysis, develops evidence-based, practical recommendations for the sustainable improvement of services at universities and student services organizations.
MUTSPRUNG
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CAMPUS
The CAMPUS framework developed from the project will include suitable recommendations for universities, based on a systematic investigation of risk and resilience factors at both the individual level and the structural institutional level of higher education.
HoPsy
HoPsy taps into analytical potential at the interdisciplinary interface of higher education research and health science and strengthens the possibility of evidence-based control by universities for the health-sensitive further development of higher education structures by providing more differentiated findings on the simultaneous influence of individual and institutional determinants.
GesundStudiPro
Representative comparative analyses of health among higher education students and non-students of the same age.
StuPsy
The project investigates the development, determinants, and effects of mental health throughout the course of (under)graduate and doctoral studies.
GesA Stud
GesA Stud develops and evaluates low-threshold, personalized interventions to promote student health and sustainably enhance academic success.
