Find out more about our 2Steps4Health project, which is carried out with Leipzig University's working group on Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Find information about our goals, progress in the project and our partners and supporters.
Project description
2Steps4Health is a joint project of the Chair of Sport Psychology and the working group on Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology at Leipzig University. The project’s goal is to promote, maintain and restore mental health of young competitive athletes. 2Steps4Health complements and expands on goals of the LIFENET project of the Psychotherapeutic Outpatient Clinic for Children and Adolescents and therefore makes a significant contribution to improving care for young competitive athletes.
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More information on 2Steps4Health
For quite some time, it has been widely assumed that competitive athletes are mentally and physically so strong that they cannot possibly suffer from mental illness. Today we know that competitive athletes are just as likely to be affected by mental illness as the general population. Particularly in adolescence, it can be assumed that athletes have increased susceptibility to developing mental disorders. Various studies have shown that early onset of mental diseases can lead to increased rates of recurrence and more severe progression disease. To compound the problem, prevention and intervention programs for young competitive athletes are lacking. While there is awareness of and treatment for severe physical strain in competitive sport, this is not the case for the psychological demands prevailing in competitive sport. Furthermore, mental health problems are often suppressed and kept secret until irreparable damage has occurred. The 2Steps4Health prevention program aims to counteract these developments.
The goal of the 2Steps4Health project is to develop, evaluate und implement a two-step prevention program to promote long-term mental health in young competitive athletes and prevent depression. In addition, existing symptoms of mental disease, e.g., depressive symptoms, should be recognized early and treated psychotherapeutically if necessary.
To this end, two steps of prevention have been developed:
In prevention step 1 (universal prevention), participants become acquainted with important health-related topics, such as stress and stress management, communication, and interaction as well as bio-psycho-physiological factors, during workshops.
In prevention step 2 (indicated prevention), participants develop strategies for dealing with negative thoughts in small groups, over a period of several weeks. Moreover, participants learn strategies to boost self-esteem and to improve social skills.
All participating athletes go through prevention step 1 while participation in prevention step 2 is discussed on a case-by-case basis with athletes. Participation in both prevention steps is always voluntary.
Participation in the prevention program is free of charge for all competitive athletes.
All participants are asked to answer a questionnaire before and after participating in the prevention program. This feedback ensures quality control and helps us assess the effectiveness of the program. Archived data are pseudonymized, so that no conclusions can be drawn about specific persons in the datasets. It is possible to revoke participation at any time. In this case, all stored data are deleted immediately. The data are stored and scientifically evaluated in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, Datenschutzgrundverordnung (DSGVO).
Participation in the prevention program and in the survey are voluntary and can be canceled by participants at any time without cause. Cancellation will not result in any form of disadvantage for the participants.
