An exploratory study of children’s peer touch in a Swedish preschool: touch forms, bodily arrangements, and social constellations

The study investigates how children in a Swedish kindergarten use touch in their interactions with peers. The study looks at different forms of touch, which parts of the body are touched, and in which social contexts touch occurs. The goal is to understand how touch works as part of the children’s social interactions, and what role it plays in the development of their relationships in the kindergarten environment. The research question is:

1. To what extent do children use touch within groups of peers, and with whom?
2. In what ways do children touch each other (i.e., what forms of touch are used and what areas of other children’s bodies are touched)?

The results show that physical contact between children is widespread and serves as an important social tool in kindergarten. Touches occurred in a wide range of social situations, both between children of the same sex and in mixed groups. The most prominent forms of touch were affectionate touches, such as giving hugs or holding hands. The children also used touch to control each other’s behaviour, such as pulling or pushing. It was also observed that older children often took on a caregiver role towards the younger children, where touch was used in a ‘teacher-like’ way to guide and assist. The study emphasises the importance of understanding children’s specific ‘touch cultures’ when educators should support children’s social relationships.

The study was conducted in a Swedish kindergarten and included 35 children aged one to five years. The researchers used video observations as the main method and collected a total of ten hours of video recording over a six-month period. The observations documented daily activities in kindergarten, both during free play and during educator-led activities. The data material was analysed inductively to identify various forms of ‘appropriate’ touches, with the goal of understanding how children use touch to organise their social activities. Touches that were classified as ‘incidental’ were excluded from analysis.

Ekström, A., & Cekaite, A. (2024). An exploratory study of children’s peer touch in a Swedish preschool: touch forms, bodily arrangements, and social constellations. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 32(1), 34–54.

Online year: 2023

Issue year: 2024

Review year: 2023