Project glücklich

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in children and adolescents with an overall increase in prevalence in the absence of prevention programs in the school context. As part of the glücklich project, a psychoeducational training course for teachers and student teachers and a psychoeducational teaching unit for 9th graders on depression in childhood and adolescence were developed and evaluated. The aim is to improve knowledge about and help-seeking behavior for depression in childhood and adolescence (depression literacy) and to raise awareness of the topic.

The current generation of children and adolescents is confronted with a variety of social crises, which can cause significant psychological stress. This is reflected in the increasing prevalence of various mental disorders (Reiß et al., 2023). Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in adolescence (Shorey et al., 2022) with far-reaching negative effects on the development of children and adolescents (Clayborne et al., 2019). Despite this, only one in five adolescents in Germany is receiving treatment for depression (Hintzpeter et al., 2015). On the one hand, this is due to inadequate help-seeking behavior, which is partly due to a lack of knowledge about mental disorders such as depression and how to deal with them appropriately (Gulliver et al., 2010). On the other hand, affected children and adolescents are often dependent on an adult recognizing depressive symptoms and referring them to help services. As an important reference person, teachers are in a central position to take on this task (Reinke et al., 2011), but report great uncertainty in recognizing and dealing with depression at school (Hartmann et al., 2020).

Currently, there is no evaluated prevention program that teaches both students and teachers about and how to deal with depression (depression literacy) in a realistic setting for schools. Therefore, as part of the "glücklich" project, a teaching unit was developed for Year 9 pupils on depression in childhood and adolescence, comprising two double lessons of 90 minutes each. The teaching unit has already been piloted. In addition, a two-hour psychoeducational training course for teachers and student teachers was developed, piloted and evaluated as part of a control group survey. In addition, survey instruments on depression literacy were developed for both target groups, as no suitable instruments exist so far.

The aim of the "glücklich" project is to provide a standardized, evaluated psychoeducational teaching unit and further training on depression in childhood and adolescence in order to be able to deal appropriately with depressive symptoms and disorders in the school context. There are plans to further develop the teaching unit for other target groups.

Here you can find the presentation of the project in the research database of the Europa-Universität Flensburg.

01/01/2020 - 08/31/2024

Grabowski, F. C. (2021). Depression in childhood and adolescence. Development and piloting of a psychoeducational program for the professional development of teachers. Empirische Sonderpädagogik(4), 328–344. https://doi.org/10.25656/01:24109

Grabowski, F. C. & Greiner, F. (2024). Empirische Arbeit: Depressionsspezifisches Wissen und Hilfesuchverhalten von Jugendlichen. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 71(2), 116–131. https://doi.org/10.2378/peu2024.art12d

Clayborne, Z. M., Varin, M. & Colman, I. (2019). Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Adolescent Depression and Long-Term Psychosocial Outcomes. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 58(1), 72–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.07.896

Gulliver, A., Griffiths, K. M. & Christensen, H. (2010). Perceived barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking in young people: a systematic review. BMC Psychiatry, 10(113).

Hartmann, A., Rückmann, J. & Tannen, A. (2020). Individuelle Gesundheitskompetenz von Lehrkräften und deren (Un)Sicherheit im Umgang mit chronisch erkrankten Schulkindern und Notfallsituationen [Individual teacher’s health literacy and their safety in dealing with chronically ill pupils and emergencies]. Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz, 63(9), 1168–1176. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00103-020-03207-7

Hintzpeter, B., Klasen, F., Schön, G., Voss, C., Hölling, H. & Ravens-Sieberer, U. (2015). Mental health care use among children and adolescents in Germany: results of the longitudinal BELLA study. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 24(6), 705–713. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0676-6

Reinke, W. M., Stormont, M., Herman, K. C., Puri, R. & Goel, N. (2011). Supporting children’s mental health in schools: Teacher perceptions of needs, roles, and barriers. School Psychology Quarterly, 26(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022714

Reiß, F., Napp, A.‑K., Erhart, M., Devine, J., Dadaczynski, K., Kaman, A. & Ravens-Sieberer, U. (2023). Perspektive Prävention: Psychische Gesundheit von Schülerinnen und Schülern in Deutschland [Prevention perspective: mental health of schoolchildren in Germany]. Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz, 66(4), 391–401. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00103-023-03674-8

Shorey, S., Ng, E. D. & Wong, C. H. J. (2022). Global prevalence of depression and elevated depressive symptoms among adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The British journal of clinical psychology, 61(2), 287–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12333