German-speaking Switzerland Research Articles

Young journalists in Switzerland: Results of a survey on aims, working conditions, and future prospects of journalists born in 1990 or later

The study examines the job situation of young journalists in Switzerland. For this purpose, an online survey of 195 journalists in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland born in 1990 or later has been conducted, providing data on socio-demographics, educational situation, career choice motives, type of employment, salary, working time, stress situations, job satisfaction, and future prospects. Young journalists have chosen their job mainly for reasons of self-fulfilment, but idealistic motives are also widespread, while material gain and status play no role in their career choice. A majority of the respondents are permanently employed in a full-time or part-time position, and the median gross monthly income is between 5000 and 6000 Swiss francs, with large differences depending on media and employment type. A high degree of autonomy is perceived at work. However, many young journalists work overtime, and two thirds state that they experience stress at work. They criticise insufficient financial resources and see the acceleration of work processes as a threat. Overall, job satisfaction of young Swiss journalists has decreased compared to previous studies. Respondents are rather pessimistic about the future of journalism, and a majority considers it unlikely that they will work as journalists for their entire professional life.

University Students' Life Stressors and Mental Health in Georgia and German-Speaking Switzerland

Abstract: Background: The university years are associated with a variety of stressors, and recently, COVID-19 has presented an additional burden on students’ mental well-being. As mental health manifestations of stressors may differ between countries, this study compared students from Switzerland and the Republic of Georgia regarding the burden of stressors and the role of potentially culture-dependent risk and protective factors of mental health (i.e., help-seeking, cross-cultural coping, fatalism, sense of coherence). Method: We assessed two samples of university students in Georgia ( N = 425) and German-speaking Switzerland ( N = 298), using a cross-sectional design. Quantitative data were collected with online questionnaires during the third wave of the pandemic. Mental health screenings included measures of depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorder. Results: General life- and COVID-19-related stress levels were higher in Georgia than in Switzerland. Georgian students experienced more adjustment disorder symptoms but lower levels of depression and anxiety. While Swiss students reported more protective factors (formal and informal help-seeking, sense of coherence), Georgian students experienced more risk factors (fatalism and avoidance coping). Despite significant correlations between potentially culture-dependent risk and protective factors and mental health, few associations remained significant above and beyond the impact of general life stress. Conclusions: The high prevalence of stressors and adjustment disorder symptoms and risk factors for mental health among Georgian students illustrates a potential need for psychosocial support with stress management. The cross-cultural applicability of Western models of student mental health services should be evaluated.

Map Task Corpus of Heritage BCMS spoken by second-generation speakers in Switzerland

In this paper, we present a corpus for heritage Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian (BCMS) spoken in German-speaking Switzerland. The corpus consists of elicited conversations between 29 second-generation speakers originating from different regions of former Yugoslavia. In total, the corpus contains 30 turn-aligned transcripts with an average length of 6 min. It is enriched with extensive speakers’ metadata, annotations, and pre-calculated corpus counts. The corpus can be accessed through an interactive corpus platform that allows for browsing, querying, and filtering, but also for creating and sharing custom annotations. Principal user groups we address with this corpus are researchers of heritage BCMS, as well as students and teachers of BCMS living in diaspora. In addition to introducing the corpus platform and the workflows we adopted to create it, we also present a case study on BCMS spoken by a pair of siblings who participated in the map task, and discuss advantages and challenges of using this corpus platform for linguistic research.

“I wanna play Powerchair Hockey until I die”: The performance of the value of life through the social organization of death in sport

Introduction
 Powerchair Hockey (PCH) is one of the few team sports available for electric wheelchair users. In Switzerland, the majority of PCH players are living with degenerative diseases (neuromuscular diseases). Their life expectancy is usually no more than 30 years. Nevertheless, although their physical impairments gradually worsen, most players keep on playing sport until they die. Thus, while death is usually a taboo in our society (Elias, 1987), it is an inherent dimension of PCH. Players’ deaths are collectively organized through rituals.
 Aims
 In this presentation, I investigate how the social organization of death in PCH shapes the “status passage” (Glaser & Strauss, 1971) that represent the experience of death. More specifically, what does the players' deaths reveal about the value of their sports commitment, and, more broadly, their life?
 Methods
 The study is based on a 4 years multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995) of Powerchair Hockey in French- and German-speaking Switzerland. Different tools have been used to collect data: participant observation, life narrative interviews, photo-elicitation interviews, and archival research and consultation. A thematic analysis was performed on the data set (Paillé & Mucchielli, 2012).
 Results and discussion
 The analyses show that, in the daily lives of people living with neuromuscular diseases, death is a taboo. PCH proves to be one of the few social arenas where players have the opportunity to talk about it. The collective management of death by those involved in PCH has two main outcomes: (1) the celebration of the live, accomplishments and legacy of the player who died, (2) the preparation of other players to their own death, which may be approaching.
 For PCH players, carrying on with their sport commitment until the very end of their lives shapes their “transition to death” (Glaser & Strauss, 1971) significantly. Indeed, being part of a sport that outlasts them and being memorialized during and after death, they become part of the history of the community. This contrasts with the fact that, in other areas of their lives (the specialized institutions, the social insurances, the medical world), their lives may be considered to have little value. Thus, the mortuary rituals and the legacy that players leave are performative of the value of their lives. This contributes to their “grievability” (Butler, 2009; i.e., the recognition of the worthiness of their lives).
 References
 Butler, J. (2009). Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? Verso.
 Elias, N. (1987). La solitude des mourants [The loneliness of the dying].Bourgois.
 Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1971). Status passage: A formal theory. Aldine.
 Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24(1), 95-117. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.24.100195.000523
 Paillé, P., & Mucchielli, A. (2012). L’analyse qualitative en sciences humaines et sociales [Qualitative analysis in the humanities and social sciences]. Armand Colin.

Роль диалекта как средства идентификации швейцарской языковой личности

The aim of the study is to reveal the role of the dialect as a means of identifying the Swiss. The scientific novelty of the article is determined by the interest of modern German studies in the dialect situation in German-speaking Switzerland. Dialects, as one of the forms of the German language existence in Switzerland, are an important attribute of the Swiss ethnic culture, determine the ethnic worldview of the Swiss linguistic personalities, and act as a representative of the national and cultural values of the Swiss ethnic group. As a result of the study, the features of the interaction of the German literary language and the Alemannic territorial dialects in the discursive space of Switzerland were characterized; the features of the Swiss linguistic personality at the verbal-semantic, cognitive and pragmatic levels were determined; the characteristic features of the worldview of the German-Swiss were considered: anthropocentrism, concreteness and practical orientation of the world perception, closeness to nature and fauna. In the course of the study, the ethnocultural role of the Swiss dialectisms in the mass media discourse was revealed; the functions of dialect vocabulary in the headlines and texts of the Swiss newspaper articles were determined; the potential of the dialect as a symbol of national and regional identification in different types of the Swiss discourse was established. The results of the analysis of the functional potential of the dialect in German-speaking Switzerland outlined further prospects for the existence of territorial dialects in the ethno-cultural space of Switzerland and determined the patterns of formation and development of the Swiss German, taking into account the role of the dialect as an identifying marker of the Swiss linguistic personalities.

Negotiations of language(s) and inequalities in transnational family biographies

Families that live in a new environment after having fled or migrated go through transformation processes that are connected to various challenges and possibilities. The focus of this paper is on negotiations of language policies in family biographies and family language practices, comparing cases of migrant families who arrived to Switzerland in different legal contexts of migration. The article addresses how these transnational families negotiate the meaning of (family) languages against the background of hegemonic language and migration policies. Questions of how these policies are experienced and dealt with and in what ways they do enable or disable possibilities for action are addressed using a qualitative analysis of narrative family interviews and participant observations in transnational families that now live in German-speaking Switzerland. On the basis of the analyses of interview transcriptions and field notes, I show how families deal with experiences of social and educational inequalities in the context of transnational pathways of education and how these are negotiated in the families. Language learning appears not only as an (un)available possibility, but it also requires one to return to the status of a student. At the same time, it is accompanied by a deep struggle for identity and belonging.

The perspective of staff members of two forensic psychiatric clinics in German-speaking Switzerland on the introduction of recovery orientation: An explorative study.

Recovery orientation (RO) is directed at living a worthwhile life despite being impaired by the constraints of mental illness. Although being quite common in general psychiatry in Switzerland, the dual mission of forensic psychiatry-safeguarding and therapy-challenges the idea of establishing RO as a work philosophy in this context. This explorative study qualitatively investigates baseline expectations and professional perspectives of forensic staff members concerning the idea of establishing RO in Swiss forensic psychiatric wards. Thereby, three central themes were worked out, namely "challenges associated with recovery," "expected barriers," and "possible recovery-oriented interventions." From a general point of view, the staff members were uncertain whether RO interventions could be introduced at all, and if so, to what extent. This, on the one hand, had to do with structural obstacles such as security requirements; however, personal obstacles in the form of different, sometimes contradictory attitudesand ideals and fearful anticipations-such as the loss of authority and power-also played a central role. As forensic psychiatric wards are non-existent in Latin-speaking Switzerland, the study does only refer to the German-speaking language region.

Die kommunalen Parlamente in der Schweiz: Eine Frage der Sprachregion und weniger der Gemeindegröße

Communes form the third tier of the Swiss state structure and are organized differently from a political perspective . Parliaments are one possibility . In some Cantons, parliaments are the mandatory organizational form, while other Cantons lack the necessary foundations for a parliament; in other cantons again, the organizational form can be chosen . Parlia- ments are also unevenly distributed across the language regions: they are widespread in French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland, characterized by very long traditions, while less so in German-speaking Switzerland . In German-speaking Switzerland the communal assembly is most commonly found . Across all Cantons, only a few provisions by the legisla- tor define their internal organization . Parliaments have great freedom to shape their parlia- mentary law, such as their basic organization, frequency of meetings, procedures, speaking times, leadership, and parliamentary instruments; significantly, there are very different requirements concerning the number of seats . Consequently, parliaments are characterized by great heterogeneity .

Needs assessment in community-dwelling older adults toward digital interventions to promote physical activity: Cross-sectional survey study.

Tackling physical inactivity represents a key global public health challenge. Strategies to increase physical activity (PA) are therefore warranted. Despite the rising availability of digital interventions (DIs), which offer tremendous potential for PA promotion, there has been inadequate attention to the special needs of older adults. The aim was to investigate community-dwelling older adults' needs, requirements, and preferences toward DIs to promote PA. The target population of this cross-sectional study was community-dwelling older adults (≥60 years old) within German-speaking Switzerland. Potential respondents were informed about the study and sent a link to a self-developed and self-administered online survey by our cooperating institutions. Overall, 922 respondents who completed the online survey were included in the final analysis. The mean age of the sample was 72 years (SD 6.4, range 60-98). The preferred delivery mode of DIs to promote PA was a website (428/922, 46.4%) and 80.3% (740/922) preferred video-based structures. Most respondents expressed the need for personal access, personal goals, personal messages, and a personal contact in case of problems or questions (585/817, 71.6%; 546/811, 67.3%; 536/822, 65.2%; 536/822, 65.2%). Memory training, psychological wellbeing, and nutrition were mainly rated as relevant additional content of DIs to promote PA (690/849, 81.2%; 661/845, 78.2%, 619/849, 72.9%). Community-dwelling older adults may be willing to use DIs to promote PA in the long term, but this study identified particular needs and requirements in terms of design, technological realization, delivery mode, support, and individualization/personalization among the sample. Our results can inform future developments of DIs to promote PA specifically tailored to older adults. However, caution is warranted in interpreting the findings due to the sample's high PA and education levels.

Parents' Perceptions: Environments and the Contextual Strategies of Parents to Support the Participation of Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder-A Descriptive Population-Based Study from Switzerland.

Environments have a modifying effect on the participation of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in all areas of life. This cross-sectional study investigated parental perspectives on supportive or hindering environments and the daily contextual strategies parents used to enhance their children's participation. Qualitative and quantitative data gathered from 115 parents from German-speaking Switzerland using the participation and environment measure-child and youth (PEM-CY) were analyzed. Results revealed 45 environmental supports and barriers at home, at school, and in the community. Contextual strategies were identified in combination with people, activities, time, objects, and places. Parental perspectives on participation and their contextual strategies should be considered in environmental-based interventions to support the participation of children and adolescents with ASD.

Media Trust and the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Short-Term Trust Changes, Their Ideological Drivers and Consequences in Switzerland.

We analyze short-term media trust changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, their ideological drivers and consequences based on panel data in German-speaking Switzerland. We thereby differentiate trust in political information from different types of traditional and non-traditional media. COVID-19 serves as a natural experiment, in which citizens' media trust at the outbreak of the crisis is compared with the same variables after the severe lockdown measures were lifted. Our data reveal that (1) media trust is consequential as it is associated with people's willingness to follow Covid-19 regulations; (2) media trust changes during the pandemic, with trust levels for most media decreasing, with the exception of public service broadcasting; (3) trust losses are hardly connected to ideological divides in Switzerland. Our findings highlight that public service broadcasting plays an exceptional role in the fight against a pandemic and that contrary to the US, no partisan trust divide occurs.

2.K. Round table: Navigational health literacy. Perspectives from Austria, Germany and Switzerland

Abstract Background Theoretical and empirical studies indicate that a lack of transparency and highly complexity makes it difficult for patients to navigate healthcare systems. This requires the competence to access, understand, appraise, and apply information about the healthcare system, its organizations and proceedings, i.e., navigational health literacy. Since little is known about navigational health literacy, partly due to a lack of measurement tools, a new instrument measuring navigational health literacy was developed as part of the Health Literacy Population Survey Project 2019-2021 (HLS19). It was applied in national health literacy surveys of the three German-speaking countries Austria, Germany and Switzerland among others. The empirical findings obtained in the three German-speaking countries and further perspectives on the topic will be presented and discussed in the workshop. Objectives of the workshop The workshop on navigational health literacy has three key objectives: 1) It gives an overview on the newly developed instrument for measuring navigational health literacy in HLS19, its development and validation; 2) it aims to discuss the distribution of navigational health literacy among the Austrian, German, and Swiss population and to highlight barriers and challenges for patients regarding navigation health literacy; and finally 3) it proposes steps to promote and strengthen navigational health literacy. Added value of the workshop The workshop is designed to enhance the understanding of navigational health literacy and to propose future scenarios and steps for action to develop and implement better health literacy outcomes. By the end of the workshop, participants – will have discussed the methodological approach for measuring navigational health literacy; – will have heard of current data and developments regarding navigation health literacy in Austria, Germany and Switzerland; – will have exchanged ideas and sustainable strategies to strengthen healthcare systems by developing navigational health literacy. The four panelists will give short presentations on: HLS19, navigational health literacy research, the newly developed instrument measuring navigational health literacy in HLS19, key findings of their respective national health literacy surveys, and recommendations and current navigational health literacy initiatives in their countries. In a panel discussion, the panelists and workshop participants will discuss the presented findings and recommendations as well as the need for action regarding implementation strategies, hands-on initiatives, and sustainable solution approaches. Key messages • Navigating healthcare systems and related information proves difficult for major parts of the general population. • There is a need of health literate healthcare systems and organizations reducing the demands placed on patients by providing guidance and support. Speakers/Panellists Doris Schaeffer Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany Lennert Griese Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany Saskia De Gani Careum Center for Health Literacy, Zürich, Switzerland Robert Griebler Austrian National Public Health Institute, Vienna, Austria

Children's Emotional Well-Being, Difficulties, and Aggressive Behaviour during the First COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown in German-Speaking Switzerland

Children's Emotional Well-Being, Difficulties, and Aggressive Behaviour during the First COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown in German-Speaking Switzerland

Exploring overt cross-linguistic influence in lower secondary learners written texts in English and French as a second or third language

ABSTRACT This article explores cross-linguistic lexical influence (CLI), i.e. idiosyncratic borrowings and creations based on other languages, in texts written by pupils learning French and English as foreign languages, and whose language of instruction is German. The study, carried out in German-speaking Switzerland, was based on a plurilingual conception of language learning and drew on research on tertiary languages. Two groups of learners at the end of Grade 7 (age 13/14) were compared before and after a reform in the teaching of English. While both groups had been learning French since Grade 5, one group had been learning English before French since Grade 3 (Group 3/5, n = 220) and the other after French since Grade 7 (Group 5/7, n = 94). The L3 French texts of group 3/5 revealed a higher number of idiosyncratic borrowings and creations based on English L2, while the English L3 texts of group 5/7 borrowed more from L2 French and presented more lexical creations that drew on German. The correlations showed that learners who use lexemes with a detectable cross-linguistic influence in one language also tend to do so in the other. The results are interpreted in relation to the educational context, and to the concept of translanguaging.

How nurse experts in Swiss nursing homes shape their role development: A qualitative secondary analysis

How nurse experts in Swiss nursing homes shape their role development: A qualitative secondary analysis Abstract. Background: In Swiss nursing homes, often registered nurses in expanded roles are responsible for developing and maintaining quality of care. These are qualified nurses with a heterogeneous educational background and extensive professional experience. However, little is known of how they develop their roles in nursing homes. Aim: The aim of this study is to show how nurses in expanded roles in nursing homes create the development of their professional roles. Method: Using a constructivist approach, we conducted a qualitative secondary data analysis of 14 semi-structured interviews with nurses in expanded roles from nursing homes in German-speaking Switzerland. The data were analyzed inductively using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: We found the constituent theme "vision as motivation" and a three-phase cycle of role development in the reports of the fourteen nurses in expanded roles. The vision of high-quality care of residents motivates nurses in expanded roles to shape and further develop their role in three phases: 1) Shaping their roles successively; 2) Developing their roles continuously; and 3) Realign their roles. Conclusions: Nursing professionals continuously adapt their roles to the shifting context to improve the quality of nursing care. To succeed, they and their supervisors need a shared vision for quality of care.

Hedging in the Swiss version of economic discourse

This article explores the linguo-pragmatic potential of hedging, which is a means of speech insurance. The purpose of the study is to identify and describe linguistically the means of hedging used by journalists in Swiss articles on economic issues, taking into account the peculiarities of the language situation in German-speaking Switzerland. An attempt is made to determine the pragmatic function of the identified hedging instruments. The materials of the study are fragments from economic articles of the major Swiss media containing various hedging markers. So far, no attempts have been made in Russian and foreign German studies to describe linguistically the means of hedging in Swiss economic discourse. The study identified lexical and grammatical hedging: Konjunktiv I as a marker of indirect speech; hypothetical constructions with Konjunktiv II; means of implementing ambiguity and approximation; impersonal constructions; concessive structures; lexical means of realization of subjective forecast; modal words. The analysis showed that most often the authors of news reports use Konjunktiv I as a marker of indirect speech, as well as hypothetical constructions with Konjunktiv II. The conducted linguo-pragmatic analysis revealed that the authors of journalistic texts use these linguistic means in order to minimize their responsibility for what is being reported, referring to an external source of information, to express doubt, non-categorical assumption about future events, to label uncertainty and shirk responsibility when in doubt about exact facts or figures. The use of hedging in journalism also contributes to the dedramatization of the situation, to the preservation of the reputation of companies and the prevention of critical reviews and the growth of panic on the part of readers. The data obtained as a result of the analysis can be used in linguistic analysis and interpretation of economic texts to identify the linguistic features of the Swiss economic discourse.

Comparison of Motivational Short Interventions to Improve Smokers' Health Behavior (The COSMOS Study): A Pragmatic Cluster-Randomized Two-Arm Trial in General Practice.

Helping smokers to quit is an important task of general practitioners (GPs). However, achieving tobacco abstinence is difficult, and smokers who fail may still want to improve their health in other ways. Therefore, Swiss GPs developed a multithematic coaching concept that encourages health behavior changes beyond smoking cessation alone. To compare the effectiveness of such coaching with state-of-the-art smoking cessation counseling, we conducted a pragmatic cluster-randomized two-arm trial with 56 GPs in German-speaking Switzerland and 149 of their cigarette smoking patients. GPs were instructed in either multithematic health coaching or smoking cessation counseling. After 12 months, we compared their patients' improvements in cigarette consumption, body weight, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, stress, unhealthy diet, and a health behavior of their own choice, using hierarchical logistic regression models and Fisher's exact and t tests. Over 95% of all participants achieved clinically relevant improvements in at least one health behavior, with no difference between study arms (health coaching vs. smoking cessation counseling: aOR = 1.21, 95% CI = [0.03-50.76]; and aOR = 1.78, 95% CI = [0.51-6.25] after non-responder imputation). Rates of clinically relevant improvements in the individual health behaviors did not differ between study arms either (they were most frequent in physical activity, achieved by 3 out of 4 patients), nor did the extent of the improvements. Multithematic health coaching and state-of-the art smoking cessation counseling were found to be comparable interventions, both in terms of smoking cessation success and, quite unexpectedly, their effects on other health behaviors. The findings of our study suggest that in general practice, multithematic health coaching is an effective smoking cessation intervention, and conversely, monothematic smoking cessation counseling also achieves the beneficial effects of a multithematic health behavior intervention. This opens up the possibility for GPs to support their smoking patients in improving their health behavior in additional and more flexible ways.

Learners don't know best: Shedding light on the phenomenon of the K-12 MOOC in the context of information literacy

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have received much attention in higher education; however, evidence about MOOCs at the K-12 level is scarce. To shed light on the phenomenon, we use the i-MOOC that aims at fostering upper secondary level students’ information literacy. The i-MOOC is a blended MOOC developed and refined in a design research process; it meets established criteria for high-quality MOOCs. In 2020, 1032 upper secondary level students in German-speaking Switzerland took the i-MOOC; the sample comprises N = 167 students who voluntarily filled in a questionnaire. The students are mainly from high schools and vocational schools. Learning effects are captured with a performance test. Information literacy gains are significant and medium in size: d = 0.75. The technology acceptance of students is evaluated using the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2). Student technology acceptance of K-12 MOOCs is primarily driven by hedonic motivation, i.e., perceived fun and entertainment. However, this type of motivation negatively predicts learning gains. Implications for teachers and educational decision makers are discussed.

Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown on Melanoma Diagnosis in Switzerland: Increased Tumor Thickness in Elderly Females and Shift towards Stage IV Melanoma during Lockdown.

Simple SummaryConcerns about potential diagnostic delays due to pandemic-related disruptions were expressed early during the COVID-19 outbreak. In the present study, we investigated the impact of the Swiss COVID-19 lockdown between March and June 2020 on newly diagnosed melanomas. Our main findings include a short-term rise in melanoma diagnoses after the major lift of social lockdown restrictions. Further, the analyzed prognostic factor for melanomas, the Breslow thickness, was greater in elderly female patients during the lockdown compared to the pre- and post-lockdown period. In addition, proportionally more stage IV melanomas were diagnosed during the lockdown period. Our study highlights the need for an adjusted management of cancer patients in future pandemic management strategies.At the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, Switzerland was among the countries with the highest number of SARS-CoV2-infections per capita in the world. Lockdowns had a remarkable impact on primary care access and resulted in postponed cancer screenings. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on the diagnosis of melanomas and stage of melanomas at diagnosis. In this retrospective, exploratory cohort study, 1240 patients with a new diagnosis of melanoma were analyzed at five tertiary care hospitals in German-speaking Switzerland over a period of two years and three months. We compared the pre-lockdown (01/FEB/19–15/MAR/20, n = 655) with the lockdown (16/MAR/20–22/JUN/20, n = 148) and post-lockdown period (23/JUN/20–30/APR/21, n = 437) by evaluating patients’ demographics and prognostic features using Breslow thickness, ulceration, subtype, and stages. We observed a short-term, two-week rise in melanoma diagnoses after the major lift of social lockdown restrictions. The difference of mean Breslow thicknesses was significantly greater in older females during the lockdown compared to the pre-lockdown (1.9 ± 1.3 mm, p = 0.03) and post-lockdown period (1.9 ± 1.3 mm, p = 0.048). Thickness increase was driven by nodular melanomas (2.9 ± 1.3 mm, p = 0.0021; resp. 2.6 ± 1.3 mm, p = 0.008). A proportional rise of advanced melanomas was observed during lockdown (p = 0.047). The findings provide clinically relevant insights into lockdown-related gender- and age-dependent effects on melanoma diagnosis. Our data highlight a stable course in new melanomas with a lower-than-expected increase in the post-lockdown period. The lockdown period led to a greater thickness in elderly women driven by nodular melanomas and a proportional shift towards stage IV melanoma. We intend to raise awareness for individual cancer care in future pandemic management strategies.

Observed Quality of Formative Peer and Self-Assessment in Everyday Mathematics Teaching and its Effects on Student Performance

<p style="text-align: justify;">The positive effect of peer assessment and self-assessment strategies on learners' performance has been widely confirmed in experimental or quasi-experimental studies. However, whether peer and self-assessment within everyday mathematics teaching affect student learning and achievement, has rarely been studied. This study aimed to determine with what quality peer and self-assessment occur in everyday mathematics instruction and whether and which students benefit from it in terms of achievement and the learning process. Two lessons on division were video-recorded and rated to determine the quality of peer and self-assessment. Six hundred thirty-four students of fourth-grade primary school classes in German-speaking Switzerland participated in the study and completed a performance test on division. Multilevel analyses showed no general effect of the quality of peer or self-assessment on performance. However, high-quality self-assessment was beneficial for lower-performing students, who used a larger repertoire of calculation strategies, which helped them perform better. In conclusion, peer and self-assessment in real-life settings only have a small effect on the student performance in this Swiss study.</p>