Mental health outcomes and psychosocial correlates among adult members of business families in Germany (WIFU-GESUND): study protocol for a representative cross-sectional study.

Abstract

Mental health is an urgent public health issue with social and economic relevance. Business families play a key economic role, yet their specific mental health challenges remain underexplored. High performance expectations, succession pressures and the wish for discretion may obscure psychological stress. The WIFU-GESUND study addresses this gap by conducting the first representative mental health survey among adult members of business families in Germany. This cross-sectional study targets adults with legal ownership in German family businesses. A representative sample will be drawn from the MARKUS database of Creditreform, supplemented by a voluntary sample via the WIFU Foundation. Data will be collected via computer-assisted web interviewing/computer-assisted telephone interviewing using validated brief self-report screening measures, including depression (Patient Health Questionnaire), anxiety (Generalised Anxiety Disorder), somatic complaints and selected single-item symptom indicators from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10) Symptom Rating and alcohol use (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) and drug use (Drug Use Disorders Identification Test). Predictors include chronic stress (Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress-Short Screening Scale for Chronic Stress), family functioning (Experience in Social Systems), self-efficacy (ASKU), impostor feelings (Impostor Phenomenon Short Scale), physical activity and business-related contextual factors. As the study does not include diagnostic assessments, it estimates positive screening results for probable mental health problems and related self-reported mental health indicators rather than diagnostic prevalence. Analyses will include descriptive statistics, comparisons with population-based reference values, regression models and exploratory analyses. Missing data will be handled using multiple imputation. Ethics approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of Witten/Herdecke University (Application No. 26/2023). Independent data collection is ensured by USUMA GmbH. Findings will be shared via peer-reviewed publications, conferences and practice-oriented formats. OPEN SCIENCE FRAMEWORK PREREGISTRATION: https://osf.io/7pcdr.