Document is current

Article History

Received: 2 December 2024

Accepted: 12 April 2026

First Online: 20 May 2026

Declarations

:

: The Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum approved the study in May 2011 and renewed in October 2012 and September 2013. Approvals for the German site were communicated to, and accepted by, the participating Chinese and Russian universities. As the data from China and Russia were anonymized, no statement by an institutional board/ethics committee was required for China or Russia. The participation was voluntary. There were no specific requirements for participation. All participants were properly instructed and gave their informed consent to participate. All national regulations and laws regarding human participants research were followed. In Germany, participation was online, and participants received the informed consent form included in the invitation emails for each survey. This informed consent was written online. Only students who gave consent continued on to complete the questionnaires. In China and Russia, participation took place via paper-pencil questionnaires, and these participants received informed consent information included in the invitation packet. Their informed consent was given verbally. Only students who gave informed consent continued on to complete the questionnaires in the classroom. Implicit consent was informally witnessed by diverse cooperation partners (at least 2 partners in each classroom). At the end of the baseline survey, students were asked to provide informed consent for the next survey in written format. Only students who consented were invited to participate in the follow-up surveys. The ethics committee of Ruhr University Bochum did not require parental consent for any college students who may be under 18 at the time of the study.

: N/A.

: The authors declare no competing interests.