Two Master’s Theses: Child maltreatment and interoception
start in Fall 2024
The Chair of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology has an immediate opening for two master's theses on “Child maltreatment and interoception.”
Internationally, about one in four children experiences adversity. This makes child maltreatment one of the most influential risks for adverse mental health outcomes: Children who experience adversity are three times more likely to develop psychopathology than their peers without such experiences. In this way, child maltreatment contributes significantly to the development of approximately half of psychological disorders.
Interoception is a basis for emotion processing and, if impaired, a significant risk factor for mental illness. Interoception is the inner "sense" that enables us to perceive and understand the subtle signals of our body. To date, however, the relationship between child maltreatment and interoception has hardly been investigated, with only one study assessing a pediatric sample. Despite theory-based indications of conditional neuronal and physiological changes, the underlying mechanisms are also largely unexplored. This would be highly relevant for targeted prevention and therapy. As part of our current project, we therefore use a multi-method approach to investigate the extent to which experiences of child maltreatment lead to impairments in interoception and the extent to which this connection is mediated by changes in the gut-brain axis.
As part of this project, students will receive detailed training and close mentoring. Students will work with children and adolescents, administering interviews, questionnaires, and gaining experience in either gut microbiome analyses or fMRI processing. Specific research questions can be determined based on student interests. Students who are interested in a thesis with a clinical and neurobiological focus are warmly invited to apply for this exciting topic.
If you are interested, please send an application with the relevant documents (i.e. CV, bachelor's thesis) to Julia Ditzer, email: by August 15, 2024.