About us - our projects

On this page we would like to present our general and research projects, which we accomplish with a host of partners of the department. If you are interested in one of the projects do not hesitate to contact us.
The department of sports psychology has a wealth of experience transferring research into praxis. We are working closely with professional associations and clubs (e.g. applied sports psychology and consulting), as well as schools, pre-schools, local communities and instituions of the health care system. If you are interested in a cooperation, consulting, support, or a specific project in your club, team, school or institution feel free to contact us anytime. The responsible persons are:

• Professional Sport/sport psychology consulting:Birte Brinkmöller and/or Stephanie Bünemann
• Elite Sport and physical eduaction: Barbara Halberschmidt
• Children, Adolescence, and Schools, (public) health: Lena Henning
• Club- and Institutional consulting: Maike Tietjens
• Other areas of research to practice transfer: Barbara Halberschmidt

Your Bernd Strauß (Head of Department)

Self-concept in childhood and youth
For more than 20 years we have been engaged in research on the development of the (physical) self-concept in and through sports. The focus is primarily on development in childhood and adolescence. Within this framework, three questionnaires have been developed, which have been translated into several languages. These questionnaires enable to track the development of self-concept in the life course in an intercultural context. Responsible for this are Prof. Dr. Maike Tietjens and Dr. Dennis Dreiskämper. Link to the questionnaires

Move4health

Within the project move4health, funded by the BMFSFJ (Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth), three central topics are investigated in cooperation with Prof.in Ulrike Burrmann (HU Berlin), Prof.in Jessica Süßenbach (Leuphana University Lüneburg), Prof.in Nils Neuber (University of Münster), Prof.in Miriam Kehne (University of Paderborn), Prof.in Bettina Rulofs (DSHS Cologne), and Prof.in Gunda Voigts (HAW Hamburg).

(1) the potential of exercise, play and sport for the psycho-social health of children and adolescents
(2) the attractiveness of sports clubs for children and adolescents
(3) conducive and obstructive conditions for children and adolescents to access and remain in sports, with a particular focus on socially disadvantaged target groups and those who are not involved in sports.

These three topics will be investigated in quantitative (representative survey) as well as qualitative (in-depth studies in specific areas) studies and linked in mixed-method approaches. All three topics are covered in the quantitative survey, which is conducted in cooperation with the research institute Kantar public (N = 4000). The qualitative focus is on a) all-day care, b) open child and youth work (OKJA), and c) socially disadvantaged families.
The Department of Sport and Exercise Psychology leads and coordinates the joint project and is also involved in the topic area (1) the potential of exercise, play and sport for the psycho-social health of children and adolescents (PD Dr. Dennis Dreiskämper & Dr.in Lena Henning) as well as in the in-depth study on the topic of all-day activities (Prof. Nils Neuber).

Management & Coordination: PD Dr. Dennis Dreiskämper & Dr.in Lena Henning

Duration: 01/2023 - 12/2023

Link to the project page

GKGK

The goal of the German-Polish intervention project, which runs for four years, Sound Children in Sound Communities (SCSC) is to encourage children to live a healthy lifestyle, including healthy eating and daily physical activity. The project is a cooperation between families, schools, sport clubs, and municipalities. This includes, loss of weight for overweight children, increase of daily physical activity, implementation of “healthy habits”, strengthening of intercultural competencies and interactive- and social behavior, cooperation of schools and sport clubs, as well as establishing a preventive chain in the community (Naul, Dreiskämper, Henning & Aschebrock).

Link to the project page.

Sportlichter former Drago

The project "Sportlichter" aims at supporting and challenging motorically weak and strong primary school pupils in the county Bentheim by providing qualified physical activity in the school setting. The project is done as a cooperation between the regional Sports Federation of the county Bentheim and the University of Münster (Head: Dr. Dennis Dreiskämper and Lena Henning). It is based on the results of the former project “Dragos Dschungelabenteuer”, which has been implemented in 35 primary schools in the county Bentheim since 2019. The aim of the Drago project was to determine the current state of fitness of all children in the county Bentheim and to initiate concrete measures to promote children's health, which is now being applied through the “Sportlichter” project. Based on the results of this study, children who performed either well above average or well below average in several tasks of the German Motor Skill Test could be screened out. By contacting the parents, these children were invited to participate in specific support or challenge groups in order to minimise deficits and provide the best possible support for talented pupils. As a result, seven sports support groups and six talent groups have been created, which are offered weekly at a total of seven primary schools in the county. The sports lessons are supervised by honorary instructors who have received further training from the University of Münster.

CULTurn

The CULTurn project is funded by the Federal Institute of Sport Science from June 2022 to June 2024 and is implemented in cooperation with the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB). The aim of the project is,
(1) to develop and support leadership diagnostics in the professional context of competitive sports in the German Gymnastics Federation with the help of a reliable and valid instrument;
(2) the development of an appreciative resource-oriented self-image and external image for coaches in the context of the intervention;

(3) to implement an individualized, flexible understanding of leadership in the DTB in competitive sports, which will be reflected in further steps in the training, coach education and continuing education tools of the DTB,

... so that coaches and subsequently athletes can embrace and develop their full potential.
A change diagnosis on leadership competence in competitive sports is carried out with the 40 participating coaches. This is based on the Competing Values Framework and also includes the topic of charismatic leadership. Based on this, individual coaching interventions are then conducted at the coaching level in the context of strength- and resource-oriented individual coaching sessions as well as coaching through group workshops. At the DTB level, the results of the initial diagnostics and later the change diagnostics are also reported back in aggregated form. Here, impulses for action, transfer possibilities and change processes are discussed and, if necessary, operationalized. Responsible for the project are Prof. Dr. Maike Tietjens, Prof. Dr. Ralf Lanwehr, Prof. Bernd Strauß, Dr. Sebastian Brückner and Jasper Guzmán.

Link zur Projekthomepage

Respect-P

The Clean Sport Alliance is an international research alliance that aims to promote the integrity of (elite) sport through its research, involving athletes and all those involved in competitive sport. The goal of the ERASMUS+ funded project RESPECT-P (Research-Embedded Strategic Plan for Anti-Doping Education: Clean Sport Alliance Initiative for Tackling Doping in Para-Sport) is to combat doping in para-sport.
For this purpose, interviews will be conducted with people from the athletes' environment (e.g. doctors, physiotherapists, sports psychologists, coaches, etc.) in the six participating countries, as well as focus group interviews with para-athletes. In these interviews, the views, opinions, and experiences of the persons with the topic anti-doping are focused. From this, doping prevention programs will be developed that meet the differentiated needs of this group. At later points, the project also envisages exchange between research, practice, sports associations, journalism, and politics (including at a planned multi-planning event in Münster in 2022). From the University of Münster side, the project is supported by Prof. Bernd Strauss, Dr. Dennis Dreiskämper and Birte Brinkmöller.

https://www.cleansportalliance.org/

Partner University of top level sport

The goal of the project “Partnerhochschule des Spitzensports” (PdS) is to help elite athletes facilitate the dual career of study and elite sports. Bernd Strauß, as the appointee in charge for elite athletes, and Barbara Halberschmidt, as well as the “Hochschulsport”, help elite athletes at the WWU in any matter concerning conflicts between study and elite sports. In the last years, the team has built a network of internal and external partners of the University of Münster. Information about the project, athletes, scholarships, and publications can be found by clicking the following link:    PdS - Spitzensport

HSHL

The university of applied science Hamm-Lippstadt was founded in 2009. Since the beginning the board of the university saw it as important to establish intermural sports at both locations with scientific supervision. Under the supervision by Bernd Straus, Barbara Halberschmidt first started establishing a health management plan for employees and students at the university. Currently, Dennis Dreiskämper has taken over the responsibility. You can find the homepage of the university and the project following this link:   HSHL- Hochschulsport

"Sportpaten"

The goal of the "Sportpaten" project is to support children with adverse developmental chances through sponsors. Through physical activity with the sponsors, the children are to be supported in their motoric, social, emotional, cognitive, and physical capabilities, to give every child the same chance in their development. The special value of the project, which was established in 2012, is the mutual benefit of the schools, the universities, the pupils, and the teachers in training. Students of the University of Münster at the sport institute, economics, and medicine support the pupils over the length of one school year (or more) and meet up every week. Throughout the year, sponsors are taking part in the Sportpatenseminar of the University of Münster, which is supported by the department of sports psychology. Observations and experiences are collected and reflected through supervision and are set into a pedagogical context. Through this, the sponsors achieve key competences in the areas of self- and social competence as well as the ability to skillfully act in their professional career. The project has achieved recognition beyond the university and the city of Münster, namely through the Cusanuswerk, the British Varkey Foundation, as well as former German Minister of Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel, who has the patronage of the project. Homepage: www.sportpaten.com

DFG Research Training Group (2012-2021)

The interdisciplinary graduate school 1712/2 "Trust and Communication in a Digitized World" has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) since it was founded in 2012. Bernd Strauß was the only one from the IfS to be one of the 14 applicants from communication science, business administration, Psychology and sports science. In 2016, the DFG extended the duration of the graduate school by a second funding phase until 2020 (click here for more information). In its research program, the graduate school investigated how trust can be developed and maintained under the conditions of digital, media-mediated communication. Digitally influenced modes of communication change the development and stabilization of trust. At the same time, new forms of relationships between individuals, organizations and the public are emerging. This is what the research training group investigated in four prototypical research areas: media, business, science and sport. 20 doctoral students did research at the college and worked on a large number of interdisciplinary issues. From the sports psychology department, Dennis Dreiskämper, Katharina Pöppel, Lena Busch, Sydney Querfurth-Böhnlein and Charlotte Behlau did their doctorates there with Bernd Strauß.