FamiLe - Family health in the course of life

The cooperative research programme "FamiLe - Family Health in the Life Course" at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences and Witten/Herdecke University aimed to gain in-depth insights into the role of families in promoting health and coping with illness and the need for care. To this end, a life course perspective was adopted in which the way families deal with health, illness and the need for care was analysed against the background of different life and family phases.

Accordingly, in their doctoral projects, the doctoral students focused on health and health behaviour during the family formation phase, coping with illness/the need for care in families and families in the final phase of the life of individual family members.

The doctoral students planned, carried out and evaluated their research projects independently on the basis of these key topics. They were supported in this process by supervisor tandems of the participating doctoral students, mentoring by post-doctoral students, quarterly research colloquia and lecture series. In addition, all fellows had the opportunity to take part in an intensive work phase abroad. They were also expected to participate in scientific conferences and write publications in peer-reviewed journals. After one and a half and after three years, the results of the research work were publicly presented and discussed at international and national conferences organised by the research training group.

In June 2015, the cooperative research programme "Family Health in the Life Course" began a second funding phase with twelve new doctoral students and two new postdoctoral researchers. The continuation of the research programme will run for a further three years (June 2015 to May 2018).