Search

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest.

Objective: Development and psychometric evaluation of a German 6-item instrument to assess self-efficacy expectations to seek support in psychologically difficult situations (SWEP)., Methods: Development of items, determination of distribution characteristics, factor structure, and internal consistency of the scale based on a paper-pencil survey (N=269) and a survey of an online intervention on suicide prevention (N=802)., Results: Principal component analysis revealed the SWEP scale to be a one-dimensional construct with high internal consistency (Cronbach's α=.83 and α=.89). We found content-plausible correlations to other constructs and initial evidence of a high retest reliability., Conclusion: The SWEP provides a reliable, valid, brief instrument for assessing self-efficacy expectations of being able to seek support., Competing Interests: Die Autor*innen geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Aim of the Study: Through the Master Plan for Medical Studies 2020 and the development of the National Competence-Based Learning Target Catalogue Medicine (NKLM), significant changes in university medicine were started. The aim of the study was a systematic analysis of the state and perspectives of the disciplines of medical psychology and sociology at the medical faculties in Germany., Methodology: An online survey was conducted on 5 topics (structure, teaching, research, care, perspectives). 46 departments and institutes of medical psychology and sociology were invited to the survey., Results: 40 of the 46 contacted institutions have called up the online questionnaire, 35 have answered in full (return: 76.1%). 77% of the institutions are autonomous. In the median, the institutions have 15 employees (range: 1 to 149). 9 universities have established a model curriculum. More than half of the institutions use and train simulation patients. The main research priorities are clinical research, health care research, neuroscience and classical medical psychology or sociological research topics. The institutions receive primarily public funding and publish 19 publications (80% international, median) each year. Publication opportunities are considered "satisfactory" by 54% of institutions (2003: 44%), and by 29% as "very satisfactory" (2003: 21%). 9 out of 27 medical psychology institutes provide clinical services to patients and relatives with mental or chronic physical illness. Almost half of the institutions expect the Master Plan 2020 to further increase the relevance of the subjects., Discussion: Since 2003 there has been a substantial increase in scientific staff, third-party funding and publications. The sites show a pronounced heterogeneity in terms of size and equipment, which leads to an imbalance in terms of teaching and research as well as clinical services., Conclusion: The subjects of medical psychology and medical sociology have developed very heterogeneously in terms of independence, size, equipment and possibilities at the various faculties in Germany. Therefore, it is very important in the future that the 2 disciplines intensify the dialogue with each other and also with other psychosocial disciplines in order to influence the current development regarding NKLM and Master Plan 2020 constructively. On the one hand, this calls for an expansion of disadvantaged institutions and a consolidation of the existing autonomous institutions., Competing Interests: Martin Härter, Beate Ditzen, Götz Fabry, Jochen Kaiser, Peter Kropp und Christina Schut sind im Vorstand der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Medizinische Psychologie (DGMP) tätig. Olaf von dem Knesebeck, Nico Dragano und Matthias Richter sind im Vorstand der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Medizinische Soziologie (DGMS) tätig. Daniel Bremer arbeitet koordinativ für die Geschäftsstelle der DGMP., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Background: Ethnic minorities and people with a low socio-economic status (SES) are often mentioned groups potentially affected by double stigma when faced with the burden of mental illness. Against this background we examine differences in public attitudes towards a) migrant vs. non-migrant persons with depression and b) low vs. high SES persons with depression., Method: Analyses are based on data of a representative cross-sectional telephone survey among the adult population in Germany (N=2013). To compare the four groups, different depression vignettes were presented to the respondents. Three components of stigma were assessed in the survey: (1) characteristics ascribed to persons with a depression, (2) emotional reactions to people afflicted by depression, and (3) desire for social distance., Results: Respondents less often felt annoyed when the person in the depression vignette was a migrant coming from Turkey. However, differences are not statistically significant in the vast majority of the analyzed items. In terms of the comparison between high and low SES persons, analyses reveal small and inconsistent differences in public depression stigma., Limitations: The study focusses on two deprived groups (ethnic minorities and people with a low SES) and is restricted to Germany., Conclusions: Individuals with a low SES (compared to those with a high SES) and migrants (compared to non-migrants) with depression do not seem to be confronted with double public stigma in terms of stereotypes, emotional reactions, and desire for social distance., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)