10th Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence in Antalya, Turkey, May 2006

by Peter F. Titzmann

With this brief report, I want to inform everybody of the student-union (and especially those who could not join us) about the 10th biennial EARA conference which took place in Antalya. The conference and all related student activities would have not been possible without the wonderful support provided by the local organizing committee in general and by Neslihan Güney and Tülin Şener in particular.

Poster of the day: A novelty at the conference was the “Poster of the Day” award that was given by a committee of students in cooperation with the discussants of the poster sessions. The committee selected poster according to criteria such as originality, scientific structure, clarity of presentation, and interaction with the audience. Having a poster of the day at the conference was very efficient in drawing more attention towards the poster presentations.
The winners were announced after the closing keynote and they also received a small present. The winners of the poster of the day award were:    
    3rd May: Naydene De Lange & R. Moletsane, C. Mitchell, J. Stuart, T. Buthelezi, T. Olivier: Photo Voice: A Tool in the Fight against HIV and         AIDS Stigma in Rural KwaZulu-Natal Schools

    4th May: Rubab G. Arım & J.D. Shapka, V.S. Dahinten: The Developmental Trajectories of Psychopathology in Adolescence: An Investigation of     the Effects of Gender and Pubertal Timing

    5th May: Franciska Krings & A. Bangerter, A. Grob: Historical Shifts in Personal Goals of Young Adulthood

    6th May: Nuray Taştan: Peer Conflict Resolution in Adolescence: An Intervention Study

Summer schools:In the days before the conference, the third EARA summer school took place in a fancy hotel in Belek near Antalya. Taken together, the impressions of the event given by some of the participants at our student union assembly and in personal conversations, the summer school was very successful again. Peter Noack, the new president of EARA, plans to carry on summer schools in the future and we as the members of the student union highly appreciate the efforts of finding funding and of putting together such events.

Collaboration with the SRA student union:Antalya showed that the collaboration between the two student unions of EARA and SRA continues to grow. This could be seen by the fact that one SRA student representative was present during the summer school prior to the conference. Both representatives took part in the conference itself and also in our student union assembly. Furthermore, the executive committee of the EARA agreed that SRA students can join the next conference at the same rate as EARA student members. Moreover, we hope the same will be realized for EARA students who plan to attend meetings of the SRA.

Student union assembly: During the EARA conference, of course, we had a meeting for all EARA students in Antalya, to which Luc Goosens (past president) and Peter Noack (current president of the EARA) were invited as well. At this meeting, a new deputy student representative was elected: Irene de Goede from the Netherlands. She will be the next student representative. Since the next conference location was not yet known in the assembly, we were not able to announce the next student conference organizer. However, later at the conference Fabrizia Giannotta from Torino (Italy), where the next conference will take place, agreed to assist in organizing the student activities for the next EARA conference.


A Final Note:On behalf of the student union, I would like to thank Olga Solomonots-Kountouri, our past student representative. She established the basis of our union, took a lot of efforts, in order to get the union organized and provided many creative ideas for networking. In sum, the EARA conference in Antalya was as a great success. The student assembly and the student dinner showed that the EARA has a great number of active students. We hope to see all of you again at the next conference in Torino in May 2008.