ResearchRisk And Prevention: Study on Problematic Online Habits of Adolescents
Pres Release No. 70/2024
21. June 2024
Heidelberg psychology researcher making major contributions to European project
To capture data on the risks of problematic online habits of adolescents and develop individual prevention programmes, researchers from 22 institutions in Europe have banded together to conduct research. The largest scientific study of this type to date aims to establish new approaches to promote mental health in times of increasing digitalisation. One major contributor to this effort is Prof. Dr Katajun Lindenberg, a researcher in clinical psychology and psychotherapy of childhood and adolescence at Heidelberg University. During the five-year collaborative project, she will study teenagers’ mobile phone use and develop targeted preventive measures based on risk profiles.
“It has been scientifically proven that a number of online behaviours such as gaming, the use of social networks, gambling as well as online shopping and online pornography can be associated with a loss of control and cause problems for young people and their families,” stresses the Heidelberg researcher. The “Boosting Societal Adaptation and Mental Health in a Quickly Digitalizing Post-Pandemic Europe” (BootStRaP) project aims to support parents, guardians, teachers, and health care professionals to recognise the risks and understand how problematic behaviours can lead to addictions and other mental health problems. At the same time, the results of the BootStRaP study will be used to inform policy-making with regard to structural and behavioural prevention measures and improved protection of adolescents.
The daily online habits of adolescents – collected via an app – are expected to provide insight into whether and how increasing digitalisation impacts the mental health of young people. The researchers will recruit several thousand teenagers via schools throughout Europe to analyse how they use the internet and how it effects their well-being. Prof. Lindenberg leads the study’s German recruitment centre. She will involve pupils from Baden-Württemberg in the study. The first round of the investigation will begin in the autumn of 2024 and study the day-to-day mobile phone use of teenagers. Passive mobile phone data such as screen times and usage patterns, physical activity, and sleep will also be collected on an anonymous basis.
“Using these data and algorithm-based models, we plan to identify usage profiles associated with a risk for teen mental health for the first time,” states Prof. Lindenberg. These profiles will be used as the basis to develop individual preventive interventions. The Heidelberg researcher’s team will then study their effectiveness in cohorts of pupils starting in the autumn of 2025 and 2026, respectively. Katajun Lindenberg is a professor at the Institute of Psychology of Heidelberg University and is the director of the Psychotherapeutic University Outpatient Clinic for Children and Adolescents.
The study will include more than 8,300 teenagers from secondary schools in three consecutive groups from nine countries, which besides Germany include France, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The University of Hertfordshire is coordinating the collaboration project of institutions from a total of 14 countries. The BootStRaP project is being financed by the “Horizon Europe” programme of the European Union, the UK Research and Innovation programme, and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation.