Insa Nixdorf from the Chair for Sport Psychology under Full Prof. Dr. Jürgen Beckmann has been awarded the Laura Bassi Prize by the TU München. The Prize includes a scholarship which extends until the end of 2016. "With the Laura Bassi Prize, the TUM promotes exceptional women in science," as described on the official website of TUM.Diversity. The physicist Laura Bassi was the first scientist to receive an offer for a professorship at a European University.
"The Laura Bassi Prize is a highly competitive contest, since many applications are submitted. It is, at the same time, a very meaningful distinction, because it offers the prize winners a chance to combine family and career by allowing their flexibility," states Prof. Beckmann.
Doctorate on the Topic of "Burnout and Depression in Competitive Sports"
The completion of the doctoral thesis is supported by Nixdorf. In April 2014, the staff member at the Chair of Sport Psychology became a mother and therefore had to interrupt her doctoral thesis on the subject of "Burnout and Depression in Competitive Sports". The TUM funding only permitted her to conclude her cumulative dissertation project by the end of 2016.
Presently, the 30-year-old is currently publishing in reviewed specialist periodicals and in international journals. A basis for this is the results of a joint study carried out with Raphael Frank, a fellow staff member, which was performed in the course of a project supported by the Federal Institute of Sport Science with 165,866 euros - titled "Risk and Protective Factors for the Depressive Syndrome and Burnout in Up-and-Coming Competitive Athletes. Identification, Diagnostics and Prevention of Vulnerabilities".
Online Questioning of Young Talented Athletes
"Classical influential factors for burnout and depression are perfectionism and causal attribution. The presumption is therefore natural that there is a high vulnerability, that is a tendency, to develop these factors already prior to a season, which may then culminate in one of these two disease processes. We want to investigate this and additionally establish moderators for both of these illnesses," explains Nixdorf.
For this purpose, we examined two questionnaires filled out by young athletes each before, during and after their respective seasons. "The project is very innovative, since there is to date hardly any research performed in this field and absolutely no longitudinal studies that have been performed," says Beckmann.
For the survey, seven cooperative partners could be won. These are the:
• Bavarian Swimming Association
• Bavarian Gymnastics Association
• German Badminton Association
• German Speed-Skating Association
• Association of German Cyclists
• Youth Training Center of FC Augsburg
• Youth Training Center of Bayer 04 Leverkusen
All squad members of the partners were invited to participate in this questioning via Email. "All together, we had two questionnaires of 15 minutes each per survey which were to be filled out," explains Nixdorf. The total of six questionnaires following the third survey was completed by 95 of those who had been written. The participants are between 13 and 20-years-old.
Burnout and Depression Already in Younger Talented Athletes
First results show that burnout and depression already occur in young talented athletes in relationship to stress, burden and lack of recovery. "Psychological care is important and sensible already in this group," explains Nixdorf. With regard to the risk of suffering from such an illness, individual athletes are in more danger here than athletes in team sports.
"The analysis shows that a strong moderator is the attribution of causes for a failure. When I play in a team, there are a large number of factors that can be blamed, among other things also the other players. As an individual athlete, however, I instead look for these factors in myself," as Nixdorf analyzes. A first paper on the topic was already submitted for review to the specialist journal "Frontiers in Psychology". Additional evaluations are now being worked out.
Accompanying: Prevention project with support and information homepage
Accompanying the study, a care project was also launched. Talented athletes are hereby supervised by staff members of the Department of Sports Psychology and strategies are pointed out to help solve problems as well as to deal with failures. "In addition to the further practical processing of the research project, the goal here is to work out and develop a preventative scheme in order to hinder depression and burnout in the preliminary stages," summarizes Beckmann, the Full Professor of the Chair. Parallel to this, a homepage is being worked out to provide competitive athletes, trainers and sports psychologists for these athletes with contact addresses, an examination for one's individual risk based on factors identified in the research project.
Homepage of the Chair for Sport Psychology
The Laura Bassi Prize of the TUM
Informative Homepage for athletes (is presently under construction)
Contact:
Insa Nixdorf
Lehrstuhl für Sportpsychologie
Uptown Munich, Campus D
Georg-Brauchle Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
Telephone: 089 289 24788
Email: Insa.Nixdorf(at)tum.de
Text: Fabian Kautz
Photo: Chair for Sport Psychology