[General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) in Simple Language: Internal Consistency, Standard Values and Correlations with Demographic Variables in a Representative German Sample]. / Skala Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung in Leichter Sprache (SWE-LS): interne Konsistenz, Normwerte und Zusammenhänge mit demografischen Variablen in einer repräsentativen Stichprobe.

BACKGROUND: Approximately 6,2 million people with limited literacy live in Germany. They are unable to communicate in written language beyond single sentences and thus experience limited social participation in many everyday areas. In addition, they are also excluded from participation in survey-based social science research. METHOD: In order to enable persons with limited literacy to participate in written surveys, existing questionnaires need to be converted to easy language and their psychometric quality needs to be reexamined. We went through this process for the Self-Efficacy Expectancy (SWE) questionnaire and tested the new scale in easy language (SWE-LS) on a representative sample of the German population aged 14 years and older (N=2,531). RESULTS: The SWE-LS scale showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's-Alpha=0,84) and adequate item difficulty and discriminatory power. We found correlations consistent with expectations for the demographic variables surveyed. Thus, men and persons with higher education and higher income showed significantly higher self-efficacy expectations. The effect was also evident for East Germans versus West Germans, married persons living together versus separated, unmarried, or persons living as singles. DISCUSSION: Compared to the original SWE scale, the SWE-LS scale in easy language has no methodological disadvantages. The additional effort of linguistic adaptation and renewed psychometric testing is thus directly offset by enabling participation in survey-based research by over 12% of the adult population. A systematic translation of particularly frequently used questionnaires or those that do not concern fundamental research but research areas in which demographic variables themselves are part of the research object would be desirable.

Evaluation of "Healthy Learning. Together", an Easily Applicable Mental Health Promotion Tool for Students Aged 9 to 18 Years.

Schools play an important role in adolescents' health promotion. Due to the limited resources of teachers, there is a need for short-time interventions that can be easily implemented in a regular class without extensive training. Therefore, the tool "Healthy learning. Together." was developed within a joint venture research project in Jena, Germany. The tool consists of a box with 60 exercises and a poster exhibition for students in 5th grade and higher. One thousand one hundred and forty four (1144) students (56 % female) from nine schools were assessed at an interval of 10 weeks in a parallelized pre-post-design with class-wise assignment to intervention group (IG) and control group (CG). In the IG, regular teachers implemented the health promotion tool. Before and after the intervention social integration, class climate, self-efficacy (as primary outcomes) and mental and physical wellbeing (as secondary outcomes) were measured using standardized questionnaires. ANCOVA analysis revealed that students of the IG showed more positive changes on primary outcomes with small effect sizes. Additional implementation outcomes showed high teacher and student enthusiasm but sometimes low exposure rates. Regarding the relatively small amount of time and preparation for teachers to get noticeable effects, the introduced tool is suitable as a first step into health promotion for schools.

[Brief Instruments in German for the Assessment of Disordered Eating]. / Deutschsprachige Kurzskalen zur Erfassung auffälligen Essverhaltens.

The development of brief instruments is an important area in the clinical and psychological assessment in the past years. Brief instruments reveal many advantages due to their efficiency and shortness for the users. However, the psychometric standards of development and validation were often neglected during the construction of short forms. The current overview presents 6 brief instruments for the assessment of disordered eating and eating disorders in German: Eating Attitudes Test 8 (EAT-8), Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire 8 (EDE-Q8) and the child version (ChEDE-Q8), ICD-10-Symptom-Rating subscale eating disorders (ISR-E), SCOFF questionnaire, and Short Evaluation of Eating Disorders (SEED). Furthermore, recent validation studies were summarized. Users should be aware about the fact that every brief instrument is validated for specific purpose and population. Therefore, aim of the present overview is to help the reader choosing the appropriate brief instrument for the intended purpose and population.

Primary prevention of eating disorders: characteristics of effective programmes and how to bring them to broader dissemination.

OBJECTIVE: Based upon the observation of advances in the primary prevention of eating disorders (ED), it is summarized that school-based programmes, focusing on risk factors for females with interactive elements, dissonance induction and booster sessions yield significant effects even under strong methodological conditions. However, beyond the presented research findings it remains often unclear, if and how programmes can be brought to a broader dissemination within a community, region or country. METHOD: Introducing the programme PriMa (German school-based programme for the primary prevention of anorexia nervosa (AN) for girls up to the age of 12), we describe the process of programme evaluation (including 1.006 girls from 42 schools in Thuringia, Germany, who participated in a controlled study using a pre-post-design and a 3 months follow-up), programme implementation and development of follow-up programmes, including an intervention for boys and flanking secondary preventive actions (such as a telephone hotline). RESULTS: Using standardized measures, the girls in the intervention group of PriMa reported significant improvements in body self esteem, figure dissatisfaction, knowledge and eating attitudes. The teachers, who conducted the programme, felt well qualified and were evaluated significantly positive by their students. Based upon the PriMa evaluation, we established a comprehensive health promotion programme at 60 Thuringian schools within the last 3 years, which could function as a model of a fruitful cooperation between a governmental institution (Thuringian Ministry of Culture) and a research institution (University Hospital Jena). CONCLUSIONS: Existing programmes have the potential for effective prevention of ED. To confirm these effects under 'real world conditions' within a given community will still be a great challenge that often requires methodological and organizational concessions and compromises.

[Comprehensive evaluation of medical teaching -- a task for the psychosocial disciplines?]. / Umfassende Lehrevaluation in der Medizin -- eine Aufgabe für die psychosozialen Fächer?

The paper describes the experiences with a comprehensive evaluation of medical teaching at the medical faculty of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. Based upon evaluations of courses initiated by the students, the evaluation of teaching is organized scientifically and extended as a comprehensive evaluation of several relevant issues (e. g. surveys of teachers and alumni) by the staff of the Department of Medical Psychology since 1998. Originally supported by a grant of the state of Thuringia, the evaluation is now financed by the medical faculty. The paper describes the requested resources for staff and material to establish a systematic evaluation of medical teaching. In addition, a detailed concept of the allocation of financial means considering evaluations, examinations, and other indicators of teaching quality is demonstrated. Based upon the results of studies related to the evaluation data base, the question of the establishment of an external evaluation in view of the coming changes of the medical curriculum in Germany is critically discussed.