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»

7th Annual Meeting will take place on 2nd and 3rd February, 2026 in Fribourg. The conference will be organised by the University of Fribourg.

You can now register as a participant. Registration is open until 17 December 2025!

Register Here

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

We are delighted to announce two internationally renowned and interdisciplinary researchers Prof. Dr. Shazly Savahl and Dr. Stephanie Simon as keynote speakers for the conference, who will share some aspects of their broad research on children's subjective well-being, inequalities, health risks, poverty, racism, discrimination, and global social justice.

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Conference Program

On the first day, there will be a keynote speech and parallel sessions, including a poster session, symposia, and an Alliance Enfance session.

The second day will begin with a keynote speech, followed by a poster session and two parallel sessions offering a great variety of symposia and workshops. At the end, you can look forward to an engaging discussion with top experts from research and practice, as well as the traditional Poster Award ceremony.

Networking Opportunities

Across both days, you will have many opportunities to network during coffee breaks, lunch, and the apéro.

If you would like to engage in in-depth exchanges on a specific topic, don’t miss the meetings of the SSECR Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

The SSECR Junior Network also invites all juniors registered for the workshop “The Art of Delivering a Talk” to a shared dinner on the evening before the conference.

CME credits

Attention medical professionals: Earn 10 CME credits and connect with scientists from various disciplines in early childhood research as well as professionals working in the field.