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IFS-Logo and black lettering of the Center for Research on Education and School Development
Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology
[Translate to English:] © H_Ko​/​adobestock.com
Project duration: since 01.01.1991

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:

Grüner Schriftzug des Projektnamens BIJU
  • 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.

Further information (in German)

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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