The purpose of this study is to investigate mental illness among high school students from the perspective of school counselors. The questions asked for this study are how the experiences are examined from the school counselors' perspective, what strategies are used to counteract this phenomenon and what the causes are for mental illness. The method used for this study was to implement interview five school counselor questions concerning the subject of mental illness among young students. The results showed that mental illness has increased during recent years and that supportive talks and lectures are used by school counselors as a strategy to counteract mental illness among young people. According to the school counselors' statements, there are reasons such as stress, the influence of social media, problematic relationships within the family and with friends, love relationships and socio-economic vulnerability. The study also describes the role as school curator and the curator's professional attitude towards students. In conclusion, the results indicate that there is a lack of research in the chosen area, which requires more further research.

The purpose of this study was to investigate which risk factors are behind involuntary loneliness among the elderly and how the risk factors can be counteracted with the help of protective factors. The study was carried out with a systematic research overview where we compiled previous research on the chosen subject area and thematized the work using content analysis. The theories we chose to start from to analyze the results are the activity theory by Lars Tornstam (2005) and the SOC model by Baltes Baltes (1990). The results showed that there were both individual and structural factors that increased the risk of the elderly experiencing existential, social, and emotional loneliness. At the individual level̊, the results showed that physical and mental illness, loss of partner or close friends, and loss of physical and mental abilities can be risk factors for experiencing loneliness. At the societal level, the results showed that low socio-economic status and the feeling of powerlessness can increase the risk of loneliness among the elderly. The results also showed that many of the risk factors can act as protective factors, such as health and structural risk factors, good physical and mental health and high socio-economic status are protective factors against loneliness among the elderly. The risk factors for loneliness among the elderly can be countered if the elderly are allowed to maintain successful aging and an active life adapted to their abilities.

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of professionals working with boys and young men suffering from mental illnesses. This has been made possible through semi-structured interviews with five informants who work with social work in various organizations, thus making this a cross-professional study. The results of the study emerged through a thematic analysis where the following main themes were identified: the professional's view of boys and young men's mental illness, the professional's approach and the professional's work. The study's theoretical framework is Connell's theory of masculinity, Goffman's theory of stigma, professional discretion and Gordon's universal, selective and indicated prevention theory. The results of this study show, according to the informants, that there are several barriers that become an obstacle for both the target group and the professionals, such as stigmatization and gender norms. All informants were aware of how gender norms affect the meeting with boys and young men, however the results of the study indicate how the informants approach differs as a result of their own gender. Finally, different contextual conditions are identified that affect conditions in the work and the professional's discretion, such as different opportunities for reflection and different opportunities for health-promoting work.

Elderly people, meaning people who are 65 years of age or older, is a relatively forgotten group within the media covering. The group is rarely seen within the media, and they rarely get an opportunity to speak their mind. This is mostly visible when questions regarding older people are discussed, since older people will rarely be involved. This study aims to investigate how older people are portrayed in media today. Using the critical discourse analysis, 20 articles from the two biggest daily newspapers in Sweden: Aftonbladet and Expressen will be analyzed. Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory are used to contribute to increased understanding of how the situation of how discourses regarding older people is presented by the media.

The article discusses children?s thoughts about death. Research was carried out in two elementary schools in Sweden among 40 children between 6 and 9 years of age, data were collected through text reading, movie viewing and dialogues with children. The main results reveal child-specific thoughts about the end of life, i.e., ideas children construe on their own. The findings also show society- and time-specific thoughts that children take from their societal and cultural context. The article proposes an integrative approach between these two: it is only when the categories of child-specific and society- and time-specific thoughts are combined that we get a fair picture of children?s perceptions of death. The main finding is that children form ideas of their own; they are not completely under the influence of their societal and cultural context. Children take over ideas from their surrounding society but they also express ideas produced by themselves.

Studiens övergripande syfte är att undersöka de bakomliggande orsakerna till varför människor hamnar i kriminalitet. I synnerhet fokuserar vi på att få en förståelse över vilka riskfaktorer som kan resultera till att man som ung utvecklar ett kriminellt beteende. Tillvägagångssättet för denna studie har således varit en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studien är en kvalitetsstudie baserad på tre informanters livsberättelse. Resultatet visar att det finns flera faktorer som kan orsaka ungdomskriminalitet. Dessa faktorer hänger ihop och skapar ett mönster eftersom de är beroende av varandra och kan även vara en följd orsak till en annan faktor. Denna studie präglas av tidigare forskning och teoretiska perspektiv som ger möjligheten till att finna likheter med det empiriska materialet. De bakomliggande orsakerna denna studie kommit fram till är skolgången, bostadsområdet, sociala miljö, individens föräldrar som inte uppfyller sin roll, individens dåliga självkänsla, förlorandet av sin anknytningsperson, och omgivningen som består av kriminella personer. Dessa faktorer har enskilt eller gemensamt med andra faktorer orsakat ungdomskriminalitet hos informanterna. Flera olika orsaker har visat sig ha ett samband mellan varandra och resulterat till en mer omfattande kriminell livsstil. Vidare har materialet analyserats utefter tidigare forskning för att kunna hitta likheter och även de teoretiska perspektiven som studien präglas på. 

This article discusses the Swedish government's policy document on a feminist policy to reduce and prevent men's violence against women. Permeated by racial ignorance and politics of difference this document systematically and consistently excludes and ignores racial and ethnic power structures and their consequences in migrant minorities' daily lives and experience. The article raises questions about why some knowledge is silenced or abandoned while some is embraced and encouraged. Within a wider intersectional framework, and through critical race theory and ignorance studies, it investigates the knowledge produced in the government document and the way it reproduces, maintains, and normalizes racial otherness and social exclusion.

Skolans marknadsanpassning har inneburit såväl ekonomiska, organisatoriska som pedagogiska förändringar för elevers och lärares vardag. I den politiska debatten har friskolornas vinster ofta varit föremål för diskussion, liksom skolsegregationen. Färre har diskuterat hur den pedagogiska miljön har anpassats efter lönsamhetskrav. Genom att rikta fokus mot betygens samtida reformering vill jag med kapitlet visa på hur skolans ekonomiska organisering påverkar elevers skolarbete och i förlängningen sorteringen av elever.

Om innovationens villkor utirfrån arbetsdelningens historiska utveckling.

The cultural sector has become an important part of the ‘new economy’ and has affected artistic practices as well as the road to becoming an artist. By discussing two female students’ paths to aesthetic education, the article sheds light on some of the sociopolitical and economic conditions that students in transition between elementary and upper secondary school in Sweden encounter when entering aesthetic education with musical aspirations. The results give insight into the ways in which young people reason when entering a precarious sector that demands a high amount of personal investment and planning. It also shows the ways in which social class still plays a pivotal role in the choice of and reflection on educational goals. Further, the article discusses how creative desires can transcend the economic instrumental expectations that surround the world in which the students live. Thus, it provides a contemporary understanding of how young people navigate a world of profitability.

The aim of this study is to analyze how the accusations of domestic violence is taken into account in the court's decision and the social services' assessment in custody disputes. The method used in the study is a critical discourse analysis of six district court judgements as well as corresponding custody investigations compiled by social services in cases where information that the child's father has committed violence against the child's mother has been brought forward. The thesis's theoretical starting points is Fairclough's critical discourse analysis as well as a gender perspective based on norms about gender and parenting. The analysis also takes into account the aspect of power by studying how discretion is used. 

The main conclusion of the study is that the district court motivates its judgement based on one of two possible discourses. In the “family discourse”, the court emphasizes the importance of a good and close relationship with both parents and domestic violence becomes side lined, whereas violence and the absence of safety is a central issue in the “women's abuse discourse”. Regardless of the discourses, the district court has the right to choose whether or not to follow the assessment supplied by social services. 

Importance: Children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) have higher rates of suicidal behaviors, including suicide attempts, compared with those who grow up in their family of origin. Several studies have shown that this elevated risk persists into young adulthood. Yet, our knowledge about any longer-term associations of OHC with suicide attempts is limited.

Objective: To examine how childhood experiences of placement in OHC are associated with trajectories of hospitalization because of suicide attempts (HSA) from early into late adulthood.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective birth cohort study that was conducted in Stockholm, Sweden, and analyzed in March 2020 included 14 559 individuals born in 1953 who were living in the greater metropolitan of Stockholm in November 1963 and followed through registers up until December 2016.

Exposures: Childhood experiences of OHC based on information from the Social Register (age 0-19 years).

Main Outcomes and Measures: Hospitalization because of suicide attempts based on in-patient care data from the National Patient Register. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to cluster individuals according to their probabilities of HSA across adulthood (age 20-63 years).

Results: In this cohort of 14 559 individuals (7146 women [49.1%]), 1320 individuals (9.1%) had childhood experiences of OHC, whereas 525 individuals ( 3.6%) had HSA. A Cox regression analysis showed a substantially higher risk of HSA among those with childhood experiences of OHC (hazard ratio, 3.58; 95% CI, 2.93-4.36) and after adjusting for a range of adverse childhood living conditions (hazard ratio, 2.51; 95% CI, 2.00-3.15). Those with at least 1 HSA were grouped into 4 trajectories: (1) peak in middle adulthood (66 [12.6%]), (2) stable low across adulthood (167 [31.8%]), (3) peak in early adulthood (210 [40.0%]), and (4) peak in emerging adulthood (82 [15.6%]). A multinomial regression analysis suggested that those with experiences of OHC had higher risks of following any of these trajectories (trajectory 1: relative risk ratio [RRR], 2.91; 95% CI, 1.61-5.26; trajectory 2: RRR, 3.18; 95% CI, 2.21-4.59; trajectory 3: RRR, 4.32; 95% CI, 3.18-5.86; trajectory 4: RRR, 3.26; 95% CI, 1.94-5.46). The estimates were reduced after adjusting for adverse childhood living conditions.

Conclusions and Relevance: The findings suggest that the elevated risk of suicide attempts among former child welfare clients does not cease after young adulthood, indicating the necessity for clinical attention to childhood experiences of OHC as a risk marker for suicidal behavior across the life span.

"SiS is not a good place for children" is a qualitative study aimed at investigating institutional care and the treatment work that takes place with criminal and convicted youth in Sweden. The study is focused on investigating the importance of the treatment work at the institutions and what impact it has for the target group. The study also examines how the target group is being prepared to return to society with the aim of minimizing recidivism in crime. The empirical material is based on three semi-structured interviews with previously institutionalized youth and three support workers. The study is based on Goffman's research on total institutions and Travis Hirschi's theory on social bonds. The study's general results and conclusions show that there is a rough jargon, destructive adaptation behaviors and a specific social culture at the institution, that can make treatment difficult. Strong external factors in the youth’s environment may be a reason why the youth has developed a social disruptive behavior and these factors are not taken into account in the treatment, which indicates the difficulties in dealing with the complex problem of juvenile delinquency. 

Covid-19 has meant that important societal functions such as high schools have been affected and have needed to adapt from traditional teaching to distance education. The reason why this study is needed is the lack of research and knowledge about how Swedish high school teachers and the school management has been affected by covid-19. The purpose of this study is to investigate the high school teachers psychosocial work environment in distance education during covid-19 and the school management’s role and significance for the teachers work environment. The main questions in this study are to investigate how high school teachers have experienced their psychosocial work environment, which effects the psychosocial work environment has had on their wellbeing and which role the school management has had in the teachers work environment.

This study applies theories from Rubenowitz “five requirements for a good psychosocial work environment”, KASAM and Demand-Control-Support Model. The study is based on 15 interviews where the results have been analyzed using a Thematic Analysis Method.

The results show that the high school teachers experience a positive psychosocial work environment due to the good relationship with the school management. One important part of the result is the influence and autonomy the teachers have in their daily work. The disadvantages in the teacher’s psychosocial work environment are related to the reduced social contact with both colleagues and students. An important observation in the results show the teachers wellbeing have been affected negatively due to the reduced student contact. The results shows also that the school management have had to be available, flexible and have needed to provide support to the teachers since distance work has had a negative effect on their social contact.

Due to the increasing digitalisation in society, social media has become a huge part of people’s everyday lives. Being exposed to the prevailing body ideal is easier today than ever, which is especially considered to affect young women and their relationship to their bodies. The purpose of this literature study was to, through a compilation of previous research on the subject, shed a light on how the body ideal on social media is portrayed for young women and furthermore how it affected their body perception, in order to identify protective factors that counteract this. The results indicated that editing photos, publishing selfies and a social comparison with others contributed to a greater body dissatisfaction in the quest to reach an often unrealistic thinideal. According to young women, an awareness of the reality behind the perfect surface was a major contribution to obtaining a positive body image. Disseminating knowledge about the subject through education was thus considered to be beneficial in order to describe the problems that the body ideal on social media entailed in young women’s everyday lives.

While the western world is in the midst of a liberalisation trend where laws concerning cannabis are frequently changed in favour of a more permissive stance, the characteristic Swedish objective for “a drug-free society” remains. Based on five different cannabis discourses in Swedish press, which have been identified in previous research, this paper uses a quantitative content analysis to examine how often these discourses appear, and the scope they are given, in four of Sweden’s largest newspapers. This was done with the purpose of finding out if there has been a change in the way media portrays cannabis in 2012 compared to 2020. Social constructionism has been used as a theoretical framework, and 120 articles for each year have been encoded and analysed using discourse- and agenda-setting theory. The results show that the legal discourse continues to be dominant, that the medical discourse has become more nuanced, and that the financial and recreational discourse have been given more room in the media. Furthermore they show that the discourse regarding social problems has conspicuously decreased. Based on the international trends, the key role of the media as an actor for social change, and tendencies among the population, it is suggested in the discussion of the results that research in this area continues. Additionally, an ongoing discussion regarding the role of social work as it pertains to societal development is encouraged.

Nyanlända kvinnor är den grupp som har mest arbetslöshet i Sverige. Dem är även den grupp som oftast blir diskriminerade eller nedvärderade, utifrån bland annat religion, kön och kultur. Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap till forskningsfältet genom att dels undersöka vad socialarbetare som arbetar med nyanlända kvinnor upplever orsakar nyanlända kvinnors svårigheter på arbetsmarknaden, och dels genom att analysera hur socialarbetare arbetar med nyanlända kvinnor för att öka deras möjlighet att etablera sig på arbetsmarknaden. Syftet besvaras genom tre intervjuer från socialarbetare som arbetar med nyanlända kvinnors etablering, och som därmed talar utifrån egna erfarenheter och tankar. Denna studie är en kvalitativ forskning med intervjuer utifrån socialarbetare som arbetar med nyanlända kvinnor. Resultatet visar att studiens informanter arbetar med olika metoder för attde nyanlända kvinnorna ska komma ut från sin svåra situation inom den svenska arbetsmarknaden. Upplevelsen hos socialarbetarna är att de nyanlända kvinnorna inte har endel av de förutsättningar som krävs för att få ett arbete, vilket de får hjälp med i form av språkstudier, praktik, arbetsträning och vägledning inom arbetslivet och samhället. Informanterna uttryckte även att goda kunskaper i det svenska språket samt utbildning är viktiga förutsättningar för att få ett arbete

The purpose of this study was to explore how unaccompanied minors describe their experiences of family reunification, and what importance or implications it has for them. Furthermore, our aim was to find out how they experience the withdrawal of public social support after the arrival of their families. We interviewed three persons who were unaccompanied minors by the arrival to Sweden, and later reunified with their families in Sweden. The theoretical framework of this qualitative interview study is formed by Schütz’ phenomenological sociology and Berger and Luckmann’s theory of the social construction of reality. We complemented the theoretical framework with Boss’ theory of ambiguous loss and Greif’s theory of ambiguous reunification. The method for analysis used is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The main results shown in this study is that there seems to be an ambiguity in the family reunification experience. On one hand, the family reunification was of big importance to the participants. On the other hand, the time following the reunification was characterized by a great responsibility for the family. Finally, we discuss possible shortcomings in the way the public social support for families after family reunification is provided. 

Background:  Active Support is a staff practice that aims to increase engagement of people with intellectual disabilities. This study seeks to: (1) identify the outcomes of staff using Active Support and how these are measured; (2) identify how the views of people with intellectual disabilities have been included in Active Support research.

Method:  A scoping review was conducted of peer-reviewed articles about Active Support published between 2009 and 2023.

Results:  Sixteen articles were identified. Outcomes included engagement, the quality of staff support, choice and challenging behaviour. Structured observations were the most frequently used measurement method. Only two studies explored people with intellectual disabilities' perspectives about Active Support.

Conclusions:  Consistent use of similar measures is a strength of Active Support research. Including perspectives of people with intellectual disabilities may provide insight into dimensions of support not been measured and assist in further developing these measures and Active Support practice.

Background: Support from staff plays an important role in quality of life for people with intellectual disability. This study focuses on service users' views of Active Support as good support and whether Active Support increases the quality of everyday support in group homes.

Method: Nine service users were interviewed at baseline and at follow-up one year after staff received Active Support training. Thematic analyses were used to develop themes. Results: Three main themes were created: (1) Home is more than just a place, it is a feeling; (2) Good care is caring with accessible communication; and (3) Time is precious. Participants were more satisfied with most of the support at follow-up, particularly choice-making, control in everyday life, relationships, and emotional support.

Conclusions: Active Support corresponds well with service users’ perceptions of good support. In future studies of Active Support service users' voices should be a part of the follow-up.

The Swedish welfare society can be advocated as a social safety net with the intention of giving citizens fair living conditions. However, the welfare system has recently undergone fundamental changes regarding its organization and steering within the social image work, where its impact is considered to have received far too little attention. 

The overall purpose of the study is to study social workers 'experiences of steering within the social services' exercise of authority. The empirical data has been considered in qualitative interviews and has brought significant knowledge and information about the subject area. The results have shown an overall control within the social authority work, which normalizes and constitutes an impact on how the practical work is conducted and how the feeling of the social work is treated. However, the results of the study have shown various causal explanations that are rooted in trust from the management team, work motives and also the social worker's individual professional experience and competence.

Based on the study's analysis, four central themes have been identified and presented as both causal explanations and prerequisites for practical social authority work. These are explained as; steering and the social secretary's work situation, trust-based governance, social work - a knowledge-based practice and steering as instruments.

The overall purpose of the study was to study and elucidate the phenomenon of discrimination in relation to individuals who have a visible disability. The main empiricism has been based on qualitative interviews and completed influential knowledge. The main result of this has been exposed to be an context-based discrimination, in the form of social structures and physically mismatched public environments. Discrimination has been shown to be a common occurrence and expresses unequal conditions, in the form of inclusion in social situations. However, have the results shown general causal explanations of this problem - which are based on lack of knowledge, and in turn, constitute negative conceptions. The study thus draws attention to people with visible disabilities, in the sense of becoming more naturally included in society. Through the study analysis four themes where identified; lack of inclusion, interpersonal interactions, negative events and lack of knowledge.

Qualitative interviews are generally conducted in person. As the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) prevents in-person interviews, methodological studies which investigate the use of the telephone for persons with different illness experiences are needed. The aim was to explore experiences of the use of telephone during semi-structured research interviews, from the perspective of participants and researchers. Data were collected from mobile phone interviews with 32 individuals who had common mental disorders or multimorbidity which were analyzed thematically, as well as field notes reflecting researchers’ experiences. The findings reveal several advantages of conducting interviews using mobile phones: flexibility, balanced anonymity and power relations, as well as a positive effect on self-disclosure and emotional display (leading to less emotional work and social responsibility). Challenges included the loss of human encounter, intense listening, and worries about technology, as well as sounds or disturbances in the environment. However, the positive aspects of not seeing each other were regarded as more important. In addition, we present some strategies before, during, and after conducting telephone interviews. Telephone interviews can be a valuable first option for data collection, allowing more individuals to be given a fair opportunity to share their experiences.

Return-to-work coordinators (RTWC) support people on sickness absence and is a new healthcare occupation in Sweden. Its practitioners represent a variety of professions, there is no common undergraduate training and vague role and competence descriptions. The aim was to explore differences in training and competence according to original professions (occupational therapists, physiotherapists, counselling, and other professions) and coordinators’ views on which professions they believe provide the best competence for the role. All RTWCs (82) in one region were invited to answer a questionnaire (89% response rate). Mixed-methods analyses were applied. The results showed that counselling professions were more likely than other professional groups to have further training, particularly in conversation methods, and a lower proportion of them stated needing more knowledge about gender equality, social problems, insurance/benefit and conversation methods. The analysis of free-text answers identified three competence areas of importance: advice and guidance, a holistic view, and personality over profession. Occupational therapists and social workers were seen as having the best competence for the coordinating role. The results outline some common values, norms and important competences for RTWCs that could help develop the RTW coordination training and pave the way for RTWCs professionalisation process.

Coordinators may play a key role during the return-to-work (RTW) process for people on sickness absence. There are still few studies on the newly implemented rehabilitation coordinators (RECO) within Swedish healthcare, and none focus on their competence. The aim of this study was to explore how persons with multimorbidity and psychosocial difficulties describe the professional competence of the RECO they encountered during their RTW process. The study takes a relational and practical approach in defining professional competence, including both what professionals do and what they possess. Interviews with 12 people with multimorbidity and psychosocial difficulties who had encountered a RECO during their RTW process were analysed using thematic analysis. Six different themes were found: communicative and coordinating skills; advisory and guidance skills; engagement and advocacy skills; being persistent and flexible; being empathic and therapeutic; being professional and trustworthy. Most of these are found in research on RTW coordinators, but being persistent, and having advisory, guidance, advocacy and therapeutic skills have not been recognised as important competences previously. This study adds patients’ views on important professional competence that support the RTW process, which should be regarded in further developments of RECOs’ functions and their competence descriptions.

Boken analyserar det skolsociala arbetet ur flera perspektiv. Den handlar om skolan och elevhälsan som organisatorisk och institutionell kontext för det sociala arbetet, om skolsociala problemområden samt om metoder och perspektiv i skolsocialt arbete. I denna andra upplaga har innehållet i antologin uppdaterats utifrån det aktuella kunskapsläget samt utifrån förändringar i lagstiftning och riktlinjer både relaterat till skola och socialtjänst.