Learning Processes, Educational Careers, and Psychosocial Development in Adolescence and Young Adulthood Study
The BIJU project assesses the development of adolescents and young adults placing a focus on the development of specific, particularly school-related contexts.
Project description
The study mainly focuses on four components:

- Ascertainment of institutional and individual data for the integration of education systems in the old and the new federal states. Description of structural change in the new federal states and its effects on central personality dimensions.
- Analyses of general and domain-specific school educational processes in the context of psychosocial development and in their dependence on varying school and instructional conditions.
- Long-term effects of school-based education and socialization processes on cognitive psychosocial development in adolescence and early adulthood.
- Transitions and characteristics of vocational and academic career paths as interplay between individual resources, school and instructional characteristics, and labor market conditions.
To allow the investigation of these components, the BIJU study is based on a longitudinal multi-cohort design. The population comprises students from the seventh and tenth grade, from four different federal states (Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Berlin, East and West, and North-Rhine Westphalia). The first assessment point of the BIJU study was in the academic year of 1991/92, the eitgh wave took place in 2018-19. At present, data of this final assessment round are being processed and relevant publications are in preparation.
Lead researcher at IFS
Project team
- Dr. Julia Tetzner (DIPF | Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation, Frankfurt a. M./Berlin)
- Ricarda Ullrich (DIPF | Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation, Frankfurt a. M./Berlin)
External project partners
- Prof. Dr. Jürgen Baumert, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung (MPIB Berlin)
- Prof. Dr. Olaf Köller, Leibniz-Institut für die Pädagogik der Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik (IPN, Kiel)
- Prof. Dr. Kai Maaz, DIPF | Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation, Frankfurt a. M./Berlin
- Prof. Dr. Jenny Wagner, Universität Hamburg
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Location & approach
The most convenient highway exits are on the B 1/A 40 (Dortmund-Barop) (closer to the North Campus) and on the A45 (Dortmund-Eichlinghofen). The university is signposted at both exits. In the local road network you will find signs to Campus Nord, where the Campus Treff is also located. From Emil-Figge-Strasse, entrance no. 18 and from Vogelspothsweg entrance no. 23 lead to parking spaces near the venue.
From Dortmund main station, take the S-Bahn "S1" in the direction of Solingen on track 7 to the stop "Dortmund-Universität" (price level A). The S-Bahn runs every 15 minutes during peak hours on weekdays and takes about 6 minutes. From Düsseldorf, the S-Bahn runs every 30 minutes. Directly at the S-Bahn station you will find the CDI building, which houses the Center for Research on Education and School Development.
One of the university's landmarks is the H-Bahn, which has two terminuses on the North Campus. One is located directly above the S-Bahn station and is easily accessible from it by elevators. The other is located in the center of Campus North at the bridge between the University Library and the Mensa, right next to the Audimax. The H-Bahn runs from here to the South Campus and the Eichlinghofen district.
Dortmund has an airport connected with some destinations in Central Europe. There are regular flights, for example, to Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Katowice, Krakow, Leipzig-Halle, London, Munich, Nuremberg, Paris, Poznan, Stuttgart, Vienna and Zurich. For the approximately 20 kilometers from the Dortmund airport to the campus, you can take the bus to the main train station and from there the S-Bahn. Faster is usually the use of a cab. Far more international flight connections are offered by the Rhine-Ruhr Airport in Düsseldorf, about 60 kilometers away, which can be reached directly by S-Bahn from the university station.