Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society for Early Childhood Research (SSECR) is an interdisciplinary conference that brings together researchers from various disciplines in the early childhood field.

«Growing Up in Challenging Contexts»

The 7th Annual Meeting on “Growing Up in Challenging Contexts” took place on 2–3 February 2026 in Fribourg. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all participants, speakers, and collaborators who made this event such a success.

Organizing Committee
Our sincere appreciation goes to Veronika Magyar-Haas, Anne Carolina Ramos, Fabienne Huber, Eva Unternaehrer and Michael von Rhein for their tireless work behind the scenes. Your dedication made this event possible.

Keynote Speakers
We warmly thank Shazly Savahl and Stephanie Simon for sharing their invaluable knowledge and expertise.

Authors, Symposium and Workshop Organizers
Thank you for your inspiring contributions and presentations, which enriched the meeting, sparked meaningful discussions, and fostered valuable learning opportunities.

Poster Presenters and Reviewers
We are grateful to the poster presenters for sharing their impactful work and to the reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive feedback.

Cooperation Partner
A special thank you to Alliance Enfance for preparing an informative and diverse session — your contribution was outstanding.

All Participants
Last but not least, thank you to all participants. Your engagement and presence made this Annual Meeting vibrant, diverse, and impactful.

Why “Growing Up in Challenging Contexts”?

From both a global and local perspectives, children's upbringing is characterised by multiple challenges, crises and vulnerabilities. Such challenging contexts always arise against specific socio-political, economic, ecological, social, psychological, or medical backgrounds. These contexts hold different meanings for individuals, groups, specific milieus, entire societies or the world as a whole, such as the climate crisis, armed conflicts or massive inequalities. How children, their families, early childhood professionals, and researchers experience, perceive and deal with these challenging contexts is at the centre of this year's annual meeting. Therefore, researchers, scholars, students, professionals, and policy makers from all areas of early childhood are particularly invited.

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Dr. Shazly Savahl and Dr. Stephanie Simon joined the conference as keynote speakers, sharing insights from their extensive research on children's subjective well-being, inequalities, health risks, poverty, racism, discrimination, and global social justice.

Learn more about Keynote Speaker

Conference Program

Poster Session & Poster Award

A total of 23 engaging posters were presented during the two poster sessions.

Congratulations to Nina Graf and Carmen Providoli, winners of the Poster Award at our 7th Annual Meeting. In recognition of their outstanding work, they have been awarded a complimentary one-year SSECR membership. Winning Posters:

Nina Graf "From Not Being Parented to Not Being a Parent: The Lasting Impact of Early Psychosocial Deprivation"

Carmen Providoli "Developmental Changes in Processing Audiovisual Congruence and Incongruence across Childhood"

Networking Opportunities

In addition to engaging symposia, workshops, and poster presentations, participants had many opportunities to network across both days during coffee breaks, lunch, and the apéro. In addition, five Special Interest Groups (SIGs) meetings took place, alongside a pizza evening and a dedicated workshop organized exclusively by the SSECR Junior Network for early career researchers.

As every year, Alliance Enfance organized a great session dedicated to Knowledge Transfer in Early Childhood. You can view all the presentations from this session here.

Discover Membership Benefits

Every year, SSECR members benefit from reduced registration fees and exclusive opportunities, such as participation in the Special Interest Groups. Become a member of SSECR today!

Learn more