Screens are an integral part of everyday life. Very preterm (VP) children face increased risks of motor, cognitive, communication, and emotional difficulties. A recent study has shown that as early as 6 months, screen exposure is linked to reduced parent-child interactions, and that at the age of 12 months, it is linked to a decrease in children's exploratory behaviors.

This study explores the associations between screen exposure and psychomotor, linguistic, and behavioral development in a cohort of VP children at 24 months corrected age, considering the role of parent-child relationships.

Thirty-nine VP children (<32 weeks’ gestation) were divided into screen-exposed and non-exposed groups. Parents completed a questionnaire on screen habits and their child’s screen exposure. Development was assessed using the BSID-III, with questionnaires evaluating language (IFDC), emotional development (ASQ-SE), and behavior (ECBQ). Parent-child interactions were assessed (CARE-Index and CIB) based on a 5-minute free play session.

At 24 months, 61% of VP children spent an average of 2 hours weekly in front of a screen. Screen-exposed children scored lower on language, vocabulary size, and mean utterance length compared to non-exposed children. They also exhibited higher negative affectivity. Screen time was negatively correlated with the number of words mastered and positively with negative affectivity scores.

This study provides some of the first data exploring associations between screen exposure and language and emotional development in VP children at 24 months. The findings emphasize the importance of exploring the complex relationships between children's screen exposure, their development, and the quality of parent-child interactions.

Introduction. Early child temperament can be described by both state and trait components. However, many items on temperament scales are rarely observed over short time periods. To enable a valid assessment of observable temperament traits as well as the daily assessment of temperament states, this study aimed to (1) develop a short version of the Early Child Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) and (2) include only items observable on a daily basis.

Methods. Parents of N = 303 toddlers aged 18–36 months (M = 27.65 months, SD = 5.37 months; 50% female) completed the ECBQ at baseline. Of these, 160 participated in a subsequent 14-day diary study (median = 10 days), reporting their child’s temperament on each day. We used Ant Colony Optimization to identify an optimal set of items, requiring (a) equal numbers of items per subscale (negative affectivity, surgency, effortful control), (b) ≥ 85% of parents observing each item on ≥ 60% of days, and (c) retention of items with the strongest loadings on their respective factors.

Results. The resulting 12-item solution showed a good fit to the proposed factor structure (CFI = 0.963, RMSEA = 0.026).

Discussion. Although not all facets of the original subscales could be represented, the new 12-item version retained coverage of the three higher-order dimensions and demonstrated feasibility for repeated daily assessments.

Conclusion. We developed a short version of the ECBQ suitable for both early child trait and state temperament, providing a practical tool for intensive longitudinal and ecological momentary assessment designs.

Introduction: Early childhood is a pivotal period for healthy development and a growing body of research indicates that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have lasting detrimental effects across the lifespan and generations (Bowers & Yehuda, 2016; Cooke et al., 2021; Racine et al., 2023).

Methods: This population-based longitudinal study examines data from a 60-year follow-up of individuals placed in infant care institutions at ages 0-3 in the 1950s in Switzerland (N=431) compared with a cohort raised in families during the same period (Zurich Longitudinal Studies, ZLS; N=399) (Lannen et al., 2021; Wehrle et al., 2021). Preliminary findings reveal strong differences between the cohorts in many aspects (e.g. cognitive abilities, health, and socio-economic outcomes) (Lannen et al., 2024; Sand et al., 2024). Yet, the consequences of psychosocial deprivation in early childhood on parenthood remain unclear. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of psychosocial deprivation on parenthood outcomes – a critical factor in the intergenerational transmission of ACEs (Panggabean et al., 2023).

Results: Key findings indicate that formerly institutionalized individuals had a 67% lower likelihood of having children compared to non-institutionalized individuals (OR=0.33; 95% CI:0.16–0.66, p=0.002). Formerly institutionalized individuals had children about 1.6 years earlier than the comparison cohort (Estimate=-1.70, p=0.096).

Discussion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the long-term effects of early childhood psychosocial deprivation on parenthood outcomes. The findings highlight the lasting impact of ACEs on parenthood outcomes and underscore the need for further research exploring underlying mechanisms and long-term implications.

Introduction. The experience of traumatic childbirth can lead to the development of childbirth-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (CB-PTSS), which may negatively impact the couple relationship. Previous studies have studied birth trauma separately in mothers and partners, overlooking their joint perception. Moreover, studies have focused on the impact of CB-PTSS on the couple relationship, and none considered their association with the coparenting relationship. This study investigated how dyadic perception of birth trauma shapes CB-PTSS trajectories during the first postpartum year and their associations with coparenting. Method. 144 coparents participated in a prospective, longitudinal study. Birth trauma and coparenting were assessed at 6-12 weeks postpartum, and CB-PTSS were assessed at 6-12 weeks, 6 months, 12 months postpartum. Results. Latent class analysis identified three patterns of dyadic birth trauma: (1) no birth trauma (60%), (2) trauma reported by mother only (18%), (3) trauma reported by both parents (20%). Growth Mixture Model showed that mothers in class 2 and 3, and partners in class 3 had higher CB-PTSS intercepts. Mothers in class 3 had a significant negative CB-PTSS slope. No association emerged between coparenting and maternal CB-PTSS trajectories. For partners in class 2, better coparenting was associated with lower CB-PTSS intercept. For partners in class 3, better coparenting was associated with a slower CB-PTSS decrease. Discussion. Results highlight distinct CB-PTSS trajectories depending on dyadic trauma perception, as well as differential associations with coparenting. This underlines the importance of adopting a dyadic approach of birth trauma while examining CB-PTSS and their implications for family-level relational processes.

Emergent Literacy (EL) skills - such as language comprehension and phonological awareness - are key predictors of later academic achievement. These skills start developing within the family context long before the onset of formal schooling. The extent to which parents provide a rich learning environment and act as expert partners in their child’s EL development is referred to as Home Literacy Environment (HLE). Comprehensive early childhood education programs, like Parents as Teachers (PAT), might support EL development by strengthening the HLE. In this program, regular home visits and group meetings are employed from birth to age three to empower parents to help their children thrive. This study investigates the effect of PAT participation on EL in the second year of kindergarten with a longitudinal RCT-design with N = 161 children from socioeconomically challenged families in the Zurich metropolitan area. We further examine whether this effect is mediated by the HLE in the first year of kindergarten. Structural equation modelling will be conducted using the R lavaan package. Preliminary findings will be presented and discussed at the conference. We aim to provide further evidence for the effectiveness of PAT and contribute to better understanding how parents can support their child’s literacy development.

Supporting families with children who have special needs from early start is crucial to preventing difficulties and addressing the vulnerabilities these families face (Boulé & al, 2025; Gore & al., 2022). Programs such as parent-mediated interventions can improve family well-being by empowering parents, strengthening their competencies, reducing anxiety, and fostering supportive communities. From this perspective the Early Positive Approaches to Support (E-PAtS) program was implemented in Geneva. E-PAtS is an innovative initiative, distinguished by its co-facilitation model in which a parent and a professional share equal roles and perspectives. The professional facilitator may be any specialist working in the field of early childhood, making E-Pats a multidisciplinary program. Structured around eight group sessions and supported by research, E-PAtS provides support at strengthening family resilience and well-being. Specifically, E-PAtS provides information regarding communication, sleep, and behavior, as well as advice on how parents can take care of themselves.

This communication will present preliminary outcomes of the program on 15 families who participated in spring and fall 2025, using both quantitative and qualitative data as gathering in interviews pre and post.

Early findings show reduced anxiety among parents and high level of satisfaction. Qualitative data provides deeper insights into key factors, especially the sense of being understood,and supported by others as sens of belonging.

The aim of this poster is to highlight the project’s impact on families, and to open a discussion on future directions for collaborative and participatory initiatives in the field of early childhood in Geneva.

Introduction: Childhood externalizing behaviours can affect up to 12% of children and pose risks for poor academic, social, economic, health, and mental health outcomes. Prior research across various disciplines has linked these externalizing behaviours to various individual and contextual factors. This study aimed to identify the most influential, cross-validated predictors associated with child externalizing symptoms at age 3-9 years.

Methods: We analysed longitudinal data from 1,607 children (ages 3-9 years) in the primary care-based TARGet Kids! study using 15 predictors in a LASSO regression model with 10-fold cross validation, an advanced variable selection technique. Externalizing behaviours were measured with the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire.

Results: Eight variables were consistently associated with higher externalizing behaviour scores: younger age, male sex, shorter sleep duration, lower sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, lower birthweight, mother’s part-time employment, higher parent screen time, and absence of household screentime rules. These predictors yielded an 83.84% accuracy in predicting externalizing behaviour scores in a hold-out dataset.

Discussion: Specific health habits and family circumstances may increase the risk of challenging behaviours in young children. The model’s high predictive accuracy suggests these factors are likely to generalize well across samples. Supporting parents in making healthy choices may help reduce these risk factors.

Conclusion: Our transdisciplinary approach identified modifiable factors associated with child externalizing behaviour relevant to child development, psychology, pediatrics, and public health. These findings may inform interventions to support families to improve child behavioural outcomes.

Background

Smartphone use is deeply embedded in daily routines, including parenting. Though its potential consequences for child socio-emotional development remain underexplored. Prior research suggests that parental distraction, including phubbing and problematic use, may be associated with emotional and behavioral difficulties in children (Solecki, 2022; Toledo-Vargas et al., 2025)

Objective

This study aims to investigate whether different facets of parental mobile device use, such as screen time, phubbing, and problematic smartphone use, are associated with child behavioral and emotional outcomes in a Swiss sample of the SMARTIES study (OSF: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/X4WE2).

Methods

Data stem from an online survey of 196 Swiss parents (25-60 years old, Mage = 40 ± 6.3 years, 89% mothers). Key measures include the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to assess child socio-emotional functioning, the Parental Scale of Phubbing (PSP), and the Problematic Smartphone Use Scale (PSPUS). Additional demographic and contextual variables were assessed to account for covariates.

Results

Analyses are ongoing and will be presented at the conference. We anticipate that higher levels of parental smartphone use, in particular problematic use and phubbing, may be associated with increased child behavioral difficulties

Conclusions

This study will contribute to the understanding of how parental digital media habits relate to child development. Findings may support the development of tailored interventions and guidelines for families navigating smartphone use in high-stress or high-demand contexts.

Relative temporal order memory is the memory for the order of the events that make up our lives, specifically in relation to other events or sub-events. Relative temporal order memory relies on the hippocampus, and constitutes a fundamental component of episodic memory.

I will investigate relative temporal order memory in individuals with atypical hippocampus development, specifically Down syndrome (DS) and Williams syndrome (WS), and in typically developing (TD) children from 4–9 years of age. TD children will serve both as a mental-age matched comparison group for individuals with DS or WS, as well as an experimental group in which to describe the typical development of hippocampus-dependent temporal order memory abilities, since the hippocampus exhibits delayed postnatal development. I will use a novel behavioral paradigm designed to assess object memory (“what”), spatial memory (“where”), and their interactions (“what-where”; “what-when”; “where-when”; and “what-where-when”).

I will present preliminary data showing results in this novel what-where-when task in individuals with DS (n∼15), WS (n=25) and TD children (n=10).

This study will provide new insights into how relative temporal order memory evolves in typical development and how it is manifest in individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions known to impact hippocampal function.

The GRICEPS research group has been studying reciprocal adjustments between parents and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) Professionals in the context of home-based interventions with young children with special educational needs and their families. Within a collaborative approach that actively involves participants in the co-construction of knowledge and practices, a multi-step research project has been implemented in Itinerant Educational Services (SEI) in French-speaking Switzerland.

The methodology is based on a multiple case study. Five parent–professional dyads were video-recorded during three home sessions, each lasting between one hour and one and a half hours. For each participant, a stimulated recall interview was conducted using selected excerpts, thus involving 5 parents and 5 professionals. Data analysis draws on the multi-agenda model of embedded concerns developed by Bucheton and Soulé (2009), combined with the framework of reciprocal adjustments (Saillot & Malmaison, 2018), and adapted to the field of early childhood special education.

Preliminary analyses highlight the numerous adjustments made by both ECSE professionals and parents, and show how these adjustment activities rely on a fine-grained reading of the environment in order to respond appropriately to the situation and the actors, while maintaining one’s own priorities. They also bring to light the macro-concerns and micro-functions underlying the adjustments.

Furthermore, the adjustments are analysed through the lens of relational and participatory helping practices, as promoted by the Family-Centred Approach model (Dunst, 2002), in order to document their occurrence according to the actors’ concerns and, where relevant, to identify real and inspiring practices in the field.

Preschool is a sensitive period for developing emotional competence, with deficits linked to long-term negative outcomes. While early socialization experiences shape this development, research has focused almost exclusively on parents and professionals, neglecting peer influences. The EmU-Project (2022–2026) addresses this gap by investigating the contributions of peers to emotion regulation. Three field studies (N ≈ 300 children, ages 3–5) employed a multi-method design, integrating semi-standardized tests, short- and long-term observations, parent and teacher questionnaires, video-based assessments, and physiological measures (heart rate). Two new observational instruments for assessing children’s emotion regulation were developed. The ongoing third study investigates the transmission of regulation strategies between peers. Results to date reveal no general gender differences in emotional expression, regulation, or strategy use. However, girls more often imitated others’ emotions to maintain harmony, and mixed-gender dyads displayed less aggression than same-gender dyads. Children’s language competence strongly predicted their own, but not their peers’, regulation skills. Smaller age gaps between siblings predicted better regulation, suggesting a peer-like training effect. Finally, emotions proved contagious: peers' emotion regulation contributed to a positive developmental trajectory of children's emotion regulation if teachers' support was lower. These findings indicate the central role of peer contexts in promoting emotional development and underline the importance of supportive environments and peer interactions for fostering emotional competence in early childhood. We aim to summarize results from the EmU project with this contribution and give an overview of how peers’ contribute to preschool children’s emotion regulation and related behaviors.

The very complex period of life during the transition from pre-school to school is well documented in the literature from the point of view of adults (Zaidman-Zait et al., 2019). For the most marginalized children, particularly those with SEN, the transition to school is a pivotal moment often marked by discontinuities in spaces, support, and partnerships with families, which can further reinforce their marginalization. These effects are frequently associated with significant stress for both children and their families. In this challenging context, the children's point of view is still very little taken into consideration when it comes to understanding about their experience, more over for children with special education needs(Parsons et al., 2021). However, some research shows that classmates can play an important role as facilitators when starting school (Prior & Niesz, 2015). Furthermore, understand how they experience, perceive, and deal with this context of transition enables adults to highlight and act on what is relevant to children (Rayna, 2020). We used the mosaic approach (Clark & Moss, 2001) with 8 children with SEN during 4 creative workshops in preschool and 4 creative workshops at school with the children. During these meetings, the children created a transition book that illustrates their experiences in preschool and then at school. This research is funded by the SNF and took place in French-speaking Switzerland. This poster will present the method employed and a specific part of the results ; the role of peers during the transition a challenging period of life for children.