Touch the Children, or Please Don’t – Preschool Teachers’ Approach to Touch.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how student kindergarten teachers or newly qualified kindergarten teachers relate to physical contact between teachers and children in Swedish kindergartens.

Physical touch is an important part of everyday life for both children and teachers in kindergarten, including in connection with nappy changes and comforting. The questionnaire shows that teachers try to combine providing physical care with respect for the children's independence and physical integrity. Fear of being accused of inappropriate touching can prevent healthy and necessary touching, and this fear particularly characterises the male informants. Overall, the informants expressed doubt as to whether physical touch in kindergartens should be regulated politically. Such regulation could prevent false accusations and inappropriate touching, but could also prevent the teacher from providing good care and training.

The study is part of a larger Swedish research project (Touch the Children, or Please Don't: Preschool Teachers’ Approach to Touch) involving 400 informants. 204 of these are included in this study (182 women, 16 men and six who did not state their gender). All informants completed a questionnaire and 20 of them also participated in a semi-structured interview. The questionnaire included questions about the teacher’s views on touching kindergarten children and the teacher’s thoughts on society's views on physical touch between teacher and child.

Johansson, C., Åberg, M. & Hedlin, M. (2021). "Touch the Children, or Please Don’t – Preschool Teachers’ Approach to Touch". Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 65(2):288-301.