Trajectories of Health Status during the Transition from School to University: Piloting the Method of Biographical Mapping in German Medical Students

Abstract

Health status and health behavior change during the transition from school to university. However, it is still unclear whether these changes occur at specific points in time, and whether these changes are stable. Therefore, our aim was to conduct a pilot test on biographical mapping (BM) for the first time in this research area in order to map the trajectories of the health status of university students over time. This enabled us to also test the practicability of BM, and to assess the agreement of the findings of BM with those of a standardized questionnaire. We included 30 fourth-year university students. First, they filled in a standardized questionnaire on their sociodemographic information, current health status, and health status compared with that for their final year of school. Second, they filled in a BM grid that allows for drawing the changes in health status that have taken place over the transition period. The health status changed during the transition (e.g., slight decline in general subjective health), and was related to specific events before and after the transition (e.g., examinations), showing that all health variables were not stable over time. The findings of BM were also reflected in the standardized questionnaire. Using BM revealed the changes in health during a six-year-period, including the school–university transition. The identified changes in health during transition and at specific time points underline that not only assistance before the transition, but also psychological support during studies, seems to be important for the health promotion of students. Besides this, BM seems to be a useful, although time-consuming, instrument for which the results were similar to those in the questionnaire.

Loneliness in University Students during Two Transitions: A Mixed Methods Approach Including Biographical Mapping

“…To learn more about the trajectories of loneliness among university students, we conducted a qualitative study, including biographical mapping [ 16 ] and a quantitative component. Twenty interviews were conducted with students in Southern Germany between November 2021 and February 2022.…”

“…Subsequently, the biographical mapping method [ 16 ] was introduced to the participants. This method makes it possible to graphically represent individual courses in life.…”

“…Associated with this, young people have to build up a new circle of friends and need to learn to live a life that is different from their familiar high school life [ 11 ]. Previous studies have shown that transitions from high school to university can result in changes in the students’ health-related risk behaviors and health [ 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…The aim of our study was therefore to investigate the trajectories in social and emotional loneliness among university students, including two transitions: (1) the transition from high school to university and (2) the transition from pre-COVID-19 into the COVID-19 pandemic. To visualize the potential changes in loneliness in the course of time, we used the innovative method of biographical mapping [ 11 , 16 ]. In addition, we quantitatively assessed social and emotional loneliness at the time of the interview as well as retrospectively at the start of study and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Using Participatory Visual Methods to Explore Multi-Local Living Arrangements - The Example of Work-Life Biographies and Reflexive Photography

“…The use of timeline tools is also well-established in qualitative interviews (Bagnoli, 2009;Chen, 2018;Kolar, et al, 2015), albeit more in social and health research and rarely in spatial science or multi-locality studies (Gleich, 2020). Also termed "life history calendar" (Harris & Parisi, 2007), "take-home timeline" (Bremner, 2020), "(im)mobility biography" (Kieslinger, et al, 2020), "biographical mapping" (Diehl & Lindenthal, 2021;Schubring, et al, 2019) or "biographical chronology" (Gleich, 2020), they address one or more topics such as key events in participants' lives, health status or relocations. The timelines are compiled mainly by the interviewees.…”