Annemarie Schumacher Dimech was recently awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Bern, Switzerland, following her research in the area of sport and health psychology.

Dr Schumacher Dimech conducted an analysis exploring the potential of extra-curricular sport practice as a protective factor against social anxiety symptoms in primary schoolchildren.

Results of this study indicated a positive effect of team sport practice on social anxiety over time, where those children practising a team sport reported significantly less symptoms a year later.

Further to numerous reports linking sport practice with enhanced psychological well-being in general, these research findings highlight the importance of sport in a specific area of child psychopathology.

This research was presented in national and international conferences in Switzerland, Austria and Morocco and part of these findings have also been published in the Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology.

Earlier this year, Dr Schumacher Dimech was awarded first prize at the national conference of the Swiss Society of Sport Science (SGS) for her poster presenting this research.

Dr Schumacher Dimech obtain-ed her Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) from the University of Malta in 2001 and went on to read for a Master of Science in Health Psychology at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom.

She then worked as executive manager of the Equal Partners Foundation in Malta before taking up residence in Switzerland, where she is now part of the academic and research staff at the University of Bern’s Institute of Sport Science.