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Mental Health in Entrepreneurial Family (MAIN-ERA)

Project overview

Mental health is an essential prerequisite for quality of life, performance and social participation. The term represents the entire spectrum of health, stress or strain symptoms through to mental disorders. Risk and protective factors, resources and needs as well as knowledge about mental disorders and their acceptance are considered key determinants of mental health on a social, psychological and biological level.

Practical experience shows that entrepreneurial families are exposed to particular challenges due to the combination of business and family, which can have an impact on their mental health. However, there is no academically sound data on the question of the beneficial or detrimental influence of this mixture on the mental health of family members, nor on the prevalence of possible mental disorders in business families.

Due to the increasing prevalence of mental disorders in the population as a whole, we assume that mental stress symptoms or mental disorders also occur in business families - either currently or in the past. As we are interested not only in stress factors but also in factors that promote health, we are also researching processes in which business families have been able to maintain their mental health or restore their mental health after phases of severe mental stress.

Further information

  • Duration: since September 2022
  • Funding: WIFU Foundation
  • Responsible: Chair of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy III

Overall objective of the project

The aim of the interdisciplinary research project is to empirically analyse mental health in business families based on a systemic understanding. In the literature, for example, systemic family therapy perspectives, such as the concept of delegations and related individuation, provide initial attempts to explain the development, maintenance and change of mental health. The project aims to open up the field of mental health in business families for research, so that the rather secretive topic is de-tabooed and thus members of business families are offered a context in which an open exchange about mental health is possible.

An interdisciplinary cooperation project

The project is a co-operation project between the Witten Institute for Family Business (WIFU) and the Chair of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy III of the Faculty of Health at Witten/Herdecke University.

The research team is made up of

  • Prof Dr Tom Rüsen, Chairman of the WIFU Foundation,
  • Prof. Dr. Heiko Kleve, Chair of Organisation and Development of Business Families and Managing and Academic Director of WIFU,
  • Prof. Dr Christina Hunger-Schoppe, Chair of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy III, specialising in systemic and family therapy, Witten/Herdecke University
  • Magdalena Wendt, M. Sc., M. A., clinical psychologist, mediator and research assistant in the research project and
  • Philipp Wichelhaus, M. A., family therapist, child and adolescent psychotherapist and academic staff in the research project.

Methodological approach of the project

The research project aims to analyse the research topic as comprehensively as possible using different scientific methods. In the qualitative sub-study, led by Magdalena Wendt, interviews will be conducted with members of business families in order to analyse what significant experiences exist on the topic of mental health. With the help of a representative survey, led by Philipp Wichelhaus, anonymised data will be collected in cooperation with an independent German opinion research institute. Participation in a sub-study can take place completely independently of participation in another sub-study and does not require participation in a subsequent sub-study.

Selected publications

  • Hörsting, A-K., & Rüsen, T. (2021). Mental disorders in business families. FuS, 5, 183-189.
  • Hunger-Schoppe, C. (2021): Systemic therapy. Göttingen: Kohlhammer.
  • Kleve, H. (2020): The business family. How growth, socialisation and counselling can succeed. Carl-Auer publishing house.
  • Rüsen, T. (2021). From shadow to light - taboos of the business family. FuS, 4, 128-133.
  • Rüsen, T.A., & Hörsting, A-K. (2022). Facing psychological stress in a business family as a dual counselling team. Family Dynamics, 47(2), 142-146.
  • Simon, F.B. (2012). Introduction to the theory of the family business. Heidelberg: Carl-Auer Verlag.
  • Von Schlippe, A. (2014): It happens in the best families... Systemic conflict management in families and family businesses. Bonn: Concadora Verlag.

Project management