11th Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence in Torino, Italy, May 2008

by by Irene de Goede and Jenny Symonds TorTorin

Student activities
From May 7 to 10, the 11th conference of EARA took place in Torino, Italy. The student union organized a poster of the day contest (see below) and hosted a meeting where students and post-docs discussed their ideas. The student conference organizer, Fabrizia Giannotta, created further opportunities for networking and entertainment by arranging a successful pizza dinner. These activities were also attended by several SRA Emerging Scholars. This EARA/SRA exchange was very much appreciated by both European and American participants.  

Student representatives and webmasters
During the conference, we have had to say good-bye to our former student representative, Peter Titzmann from Jena, and our former webmaster, Poldi Kuhl from Berlin, and we thank them both for the great work they have done for our union during the last years. Furthermore, during our student meeting in Italy we elected a new deputy representative, Jenny Symonds from Cambridge, and a new web master, Tina Kretschmer from Brighton, and officially welcomed our new representative, Irene de Goede from Utrecht, for the years 2008 to 2010.

Poster of the day contest 2008
On three consecutive days during the XIth EARA conference, a poster committee of senior researchers and EARA students judged the posters during the poster sessions. Each day, the winner of the poster of the day contest was awarded with a certificate and a present. Posters of the following researchers were awarded:

Best poster of May 8th 2008: “Do prosocial videogames have stronger effects than violent videogames?” by Darcia Narvaez (University of Notre Dame), in collaboration with Bradley Mattan and Carl MacMichael.

Best poster of May 9th 2008: “Effects of friendships with popular peers on relational aggression and victimization” by Ellen Peters (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen), in collaboration with Antonius H. N. Cillessen, J. Marianne Riksen-Walraven, and Gerbert J. T. Haselager.

Best poster of May 10th 2008: “Weight status of young adults: How important are earlier stress, coping, and family functioning during adolescence?” by Sina Nitzko (University of Mainz), in collaboration with Inge Seiffge-Krenke.