The study in which you are asked to participate is designed to assess the mental health and resilience of university faculty and student mentors, measure how much they know about mental health, and to see what their attitudes are for seeking help for mental health. The study is being conducted by Mara Meinzer and Alina Thiele (M.Sc. and B.Sc students, respectively) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Christian Pester (Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at University of Delaware) and Prof. Dr. Sarah Schaefer (Junior Professor of Psychology the Technische Universität Braunschweig and the Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research). The study has been approved by the ethics committee of the Technische Universität Braunschweig. 

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study is to examine the participants’ mental health, resilience, and knowledge on mental health topics, as well as their attitudes toward seeking help for mental health issues. 

DESCRIPTION: Participants will be asked questions on their mental health, their resilience, and their knowledge of mental health topics and disorders, their feelings toward people with mental health issues, attitudes about seeking help for mental health problems, and some demographic questions. When answering the questions, the aim is not to think about them as long and comprehensively as possible, but we are interested in your intuitive assessment. So please indicate what you think is most likely to apply to you. As a rule, there is no right or wrong answer to the questions. 

PARTICIPATION: Your participation in the study is totally voluntary. You can refuse to participate in the study or discontinue your participation at any time without any consequences. 

CONFIDENTIALITY: Your responses will remain confidential, and data will be reported in group form only. You can find the data security policies here.

DURATION: It will take approximately 20 minutes to complete the survey.

RISKS: Although not anticipated, there may be some discomfort in answering some of the questions. You are not required to answer and can skip the question or end your participation. 

BENEFITS: There will not be any direct benefits to the participants. However, findings from the study will contribute to our knowledge in this area of research and help us identify potential interventions to improve faculty and student mental health in academia. 

CONTACT: If you have any questions about this study, please feel free to contact Prof. Dr. Christian Pester at pester@udel.edu or Jun.-Prof. Dr. Sarah Schaefer at sarah.schaefer@tu-braunschweig.de.

RESULTS: Results of the study can be obtained from our Website. The results are expected to be available from June 2025.

We recommend using a computer or tablet to fill out the following questionnaire. Layouting issues may occur when using a Smartphone.