We used national surveys to study how older persons’ changing household patterns influence the gender balance of caregiving in two countries with distinct household structures and cultures, Spain and Sweden. In both countries, men and women provide care equally often for their partner in couple-only households. This has become the most common household type among older persons in Spain and prevails altogether in Sweden. This challenges the traditional dominance of young or middle-aged women as primary caregivers in Spain. In Sweden, many caregivers are old themselves. We focus attention to partners as caregivers and the consequences of changing household structures for caregiving, which may be on the way to gender equality in both countries, with implications for families and for the public services.

Usually it is women who take care of family members in the home, but with age, gender differences become less pronounced and, from 80 years onwards, there are more men caring for a family member – generally their partner – than women. Social and demographic changes are presenting new challenges for public services. In particular, in two-person households with elderly inhabitants, one of whom is dependent, it is necessary to tackle not only the needs of the dependent partner but also those of the carer partner. For this reason, carer support programmes are needed.

Background. Samis are indigenous people in north Europe. In the territory called Sa´pmi (Lapland), reindeer herding is the traditional base for the Sami economy. The relation between living conditions and positive health of the Swedish Samis has been sparsely studied. As health is closely linked to sense of coherence (SOC), an understanding of the background factors to SOC may contribute knowledge that might be useful in promoting living conditions and health.

Methods. The study examines relations between the level of SOC and background factors from surveys in a Sami population (n=613) in comparison to a non-Sami population (n=525) in Sweden, and in comparison between 2 subsamples of Samis, that is, herders and non-herders.

Results. There are more similarities than differences between the Sami and non-Sami populations. However, dividing the Sami population, reindeer herders had significantly lower SOC, and in specific the subcomponent manageability, that is, less ability to use available resources to meet different demands in life, compared to non-herders.

Conclusions. In addition to age and health, predictors of SOC are related to the life form of reindeer husbandry and the belonging to the herding community

This study examines how children report abuse, neglect and behavioural problems and what authorities they claim to have had contact with that are legally mandated to report to the Child Welfare Services, e.g. health services and police. It draws data from a longitudinal research programme, LoRDIA, in which four data collections followed adolescents’ development from 12 to 15 years (n = 1884). A total of 61 indicators of self-reported child abuse, neglect and behavioural problems were constructed to identify children with severe exposure so that each indicator would have prompted referral. The main finding is that 445 (25.3%) of the study population reported severe exposure of this magnitude. Among these self-reported severely exposed children (SSE), boys reported higher rates of child neglect and of overall behavioural problems, specifically criminal and other socially destructive behaviour. Poverty and living in single-parent households significantly increase the risk of abuse, neglect, and behavioural problems. Increased risk of neglect and criminal behaviour were found for children studying Swedish as second language. The SSE children more than other children report contact with all authorities with mandatory reporting. Odds ratios of contact were higher in the case of behavioural problems compared to the odds ratios for abuse and neglect.

Background: Educational environments are considered important in strengthening students’ health status and knowledge, which are associated with good educational outcomes. It has been suggested to establish healthy universities based on a salutogenic approach – namely, health promotion. The aim of this study was to describe health-promoting resources and factors among first-semester students in higher education in healthcare and social work.

Methods: This cross-sectional study is based on a survey distributed among all students in seven healthcare and social work programmes at six universities in southern Sweden. The survey was carried out in 2018 using a self-reported, web-based questionnaire focussing on general health and well-being, lifestyle factors together with three validated instruments measuring health-promoting factors and processes: the Sense of Coherence (SOC) scale, Salutogenic Health Indicator Scale (SHIS) and Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ).

Results: Of 2283 students, 851 (37.3%) completed the survey, of whom 742 (87.1%) were women; 722 (84.8%) were enrolled on healthcare programmes, and 129 (15.2%) were enrolled on social work programmes. Most reported good general health and well-being (88.1% and 83.7%, respectively). The total mean scores for the SOC scale, SHIS and OBQ were, respectively, 59.09 (SD = 11.78), 44.04 (SD = 9.38) and 26.40 (SD = 7.07). Well-being and several healthy lifestyles were related to better general health and higher SOC, SHIS and OBQ scores. Multiple linear and logistic regressions showed that perceived well-being and no sleeping problems significantly predicted higher general health and higher SOC, SHIS and OBQ scores. Being less sedentary and non-smoking habits were significant predictors of higher SOC.

Conclusions: Swedish students in higher education within the healthcare and social work sector report good general health and well-being in the first semester, as well as health-promoting resources (i.e. SOC, SHIS and OBQ), and in some aspects, a healthy lifestyle. High-intensity exercise, no sleeping problems and non-smoking seem to be of importance to both general health and health-promotive resources. This study contributes to knowledge about the health promotive characteristics of students in the healthcare and social work fields, which is of importance for planning universities with a salutogenic approach.

Attacks on academic freedom in Turkey have become increasingly systematic in recent years and thousands of academics have been dismissed. This study reflects on the effects of this worsening repression through interviews with academics in the social sciences, both those dismissed and those still active in their profession. Although the dismissed academics are socially in a very precarious position, they are continuing their scholarly activities in alternative, underground forms. This resistance stands in contrast to the accommodation and self-censorship that seem, according to the interviewees, to prevail in university departments.

In wide-ranging attacks on academic freedom in Turkey in recent years, thousands of academics have lost their university positions. At the end of 2016 oppositional academics, many of whom were dismissed from their positions for having signed a peace petition, established a Street Academy as an alternative way to reach out to both students and the public in Ankara. In this study we analyse the experiences of these street academy lecturers from the perspective of Social Representation Theory. Our main aims were to explore teaching experience perceptions and representations and, in addition, also the opportunities and challenges generated by this alternative academy. Data consisted of semi-structured interviews with five female and five male street academy lecturers. The results of a qualitative thematic analysis revealed that the way participants explained their experiences could be organised into three major themes and several subordinate themes. One of the most salient results was that participating in the street Academy had become a way to defend academic freedom. More generally suggested results demonstrated that teaching in this new setting, outside of the universities and away from customised learning environments, was quite a novel experience. The possible implications of street academy lecturers? experiences are discussed.

This article presents various forms of activities performed by locally based social welfare research and development (R&D) units in Sweden. The authors argue that these units are vital actors in the field of encouraging and strengthening evidence-based social work practice. They are close to social services organisations and have the ability to use flexible methods in order to bridge the gap between research and practice in a local context. The theoretical framework for the article is the organisational excellence model – an archetype for how research can be used in practice.

The pathological use of the internet – conceptualized as ‘internet addiction’ – might be crucial in initiating and increasing sleep disturbances in the community. While inconsistent evidence is reported regarding the association of internet addiction and sleep disturbances, the severity of this association remains unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to increase our understanding of the relationship between internet addiction and sleep disturbances. A systematic review was conducted through Scopus, PubMed Central, ProQuest, ISI Web of Knowledge, and EMBASE using keywords related to internet addiction and sleep problems. Observational studies (cohort, case-control or cross-sectional studies) focusing on association between internet addiction and sleep disturbances including sleep problems and sleep duration were selected. A meta-analysis using random-effect model was conducted to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for experiencing sleep problems and standardized mean differences (SMDs) for sleep duration. Eligible studies (N = 23) included 35,684 participants. The overall pooled OR of having sleep problems if addicted to the internet was 2.20 (95% CI: 1.77–2.74). Additionally, the overall pooled SMDs for sleep duration for the IA group compared to normal internet users was −0.24 (95% CI: −0.38, −0.10). Results of the meta-analysis revealed a significant OR for sleep problems and a significant reduced sleep duration among individuals addicted to the internet.

Secure care in Sweden is the most intrusive child welfare intervention, and children and their family members have restricted contact. For each child in secure care, there are at least twice as many affected family members and parents who must manage the consequences of this institutionalization. Clearly, it is just as important to understand how secure care affects parents as it is to understand how secure care affects children. To address this issue, we conducted in-depth interviews with 11 parents to eight children who had been placed in secure care during their childhood, focusing on the institutional and societal structures that affected these parents and their parenting. With a narrative approach, stories alluding to a metaphor of war are identified. These stories reveal how all parents (but especially single mothers) are affected by their diverse socio-economic positions and the rigid frames of family life presumed by child welfare interventions. In these narratives, parenting emerges as a social practice rather than a skill. Above all, the stories demonstrate a great deal of vulnerability and sensitivity of parenting. The findings raise critical questions about the meaning and overarching consequences of institutional interventions in a family life. 

BACKGROUND

Feeling accepted by peers is important for young people's health but few studies have examined the overall degree of acceptance in school and its health consequences. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether health complaints among Swedish students can be attributed to the acceptance climate in their school class even when the health effects of their own (individual) acceptance score have been taken into account.

METHODS

The data used were from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study for the years 2001 to 2002, 2005 to 2006, and 2009 to 2010, consisting of 13,902 5th-, 7th-, and 9th-grade Swedish students nested into 742 school classes. The statistical analyses were performed by means of linear regression multilevel analysis.

RESULTS

The results indicated that the variation in subjective health complaints could be ascribed partly to the school-class level (boys: 5.0%; girls: 13.5%). Peer acceptance at the individual level demonstrated a clear association with health: the lower the acceptance, the higher the complaint scores. For girls, but not for boys, the overall degree of peer acceptance in the school class demonstrated a contextual effect on health, net of acceptance at the student level. Interaction analyses also revealed an increasingly favorable health among poorly accepted girls as the acceptance climate in the school class declined.

CONCLUSIONS

A lower overall degree of peer acceptance in the school class is associated with poorer health among girls. However, girls who themselves feel poorly accepted are not as negatively affected health-wise by a poor acceptance climate, as are well-accepted girls.

The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate adolescent drinking to drunkenness and connected contextual factors. The thesis is based on four studies, addressing different aspects: The first explores arenas of adolescent drunkenness, and the meaning the adolescents attribute to them. The second investigates Swedish adolescents discourse on alcohol and parties, as well as positive and negative effects of alcohol consumption. The third reports on early onset, i.e. before the age of 14, in substance use, including alcohol drinking and drunkenness, and predicts this from various psychological and social factors. The forth examines contexts of drunkenness, i.e. where and with whom 15-year olds in Sweden get drunk. Furthermore, the importance of the place and social context for drunkenness in adolescence, and what importance and strategies young people themselves associate with their alcohol consumption are examined.

The studies derive from two data samples. Articles I and II utilise qualitative methods and explore Swedish changing arenas for adolescent drunkenness and adolescent discourse on drunkenness and the importance of place and space. Article I stems from a qualitative interview-material with an ethnographic approach. Twenty-three adolescents (7 females and 16 males) from three small communities in the south of Sweden in the ages of 16 to18 were interviewed. The material also included contacts with outreach social workers on local, regional and national level as well participating observations. The data for Article II stems from the interviews with twenty-three adolescents. Article I was analysed through text-analysis and Article II through thematic analysis.

Articles III and IV conduct quantitative analyses, and stems from the multidisciplinary research programme, Longitudinal Research on Development In Adolescence (LoRDIA) which follows adolescents from the age of 12 and 13 until they are 18 years old, focusing on substance use and misuse, health and ill-health, peer relations and school functioning through self-reported questionnaires. Different data collection waves were used, and combined them two and two, for cross-sectional analyses. Article III combined the first two waves and by doing so, covered 91 percent of the study population of 1896 students aged 13-14. Article IV combined all 1355 grade 9 students from waves 3 and 3b. Article III investigated early onset in substance use and was analysed with bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models. Article IV investigated frequency of drunkenness and different outcomes from drunkenness in different contexts, as well as with whom adolescents got drunk together with and the negative consequences of getting drunk.

The result indicates a change from drinking to drunkenness at outdoor places. The outdoor places, both public and hidden, that has been used for adolescents socializing and drinking to drunkenness were empty. Homes, without present adults are the most common places for parties. The parties stand for mainly positive experiences and a break in everyday life. Being in a home arena allows for increased control, both over own drunkenness but also over who is allowed at the party and who is not. The dissertation also investigates early onset in use of alcohol and drunkenness and shows that delinquency, perceived parental permissions and availability of substances are the strongest factors predicting onset among 13-14-year-olds. The dissertation shows that most drunkenness experiences are reported in homes without adults present, not in outdoor and hidden places. Drinking in homes did not lower the association with high frequency of drunkenness, negative consequences or peer problems.

The conclusion shows the importance of place and space in understanding adolescent drunkenness and partying.

This study explores adolescent reasoning behind the use of alcohol at different types of parties, often house parties, and about the strategies to achieve maturity and prevent losing control. The data consist of semi-structured interviews with 23 adolescents aged 16–18 years (16 males and seven females). The interview transcripts were analysed using an inductive, thematic approach. All informants had personal experience with drinking at parties in different social settings. Our results suggest that the process of learning how to drink, often through failure in terms of being intoxicated, is important for adolescents’ who strive to control their alcohol intake resulted in a good time and a break from everyday life. Furthermore, the results indicate that different social settings and party types engender different drinking patterns. Maturity and controlled conduct come across as desired ideals that provide a person with symbolic capital and thus, social status.

AIM – The study explores arenas of adolescent binge drinking in small Swedish towns and the meanings these have for young persons. The focus is thus on space and place, and on the geography of underage drinking.

DESIGN – An ethnographic approach was used, including direct observations, document studies and contacts with youth workers on local and national levels, and interviews with 28 underage binge-drinking adolescents chosen as informants.

FINDINGS – Adolescent binge drinkers seem to have moved away from street and other outdoor drinking arenas to home environments, where they feel they have more control over their party location and participants.

CONCLUSIONS – One consequence of outdoor drinking moving indoors is that professional youth workers and police cannot enter party arenas and the only adults who can do so are the parents. This has implications for preventive alcohol strategies and outreach social work. Measures should be directed to parents to make them fully aware of the importance of the party location in their homes.

Problem: Early onset, prevalence, and predictors of substance use - tobacco, alcohol-drinking, alcohol-drunkenness, and drugs - were studied in 13 and 14-year-old boys and girls in Sweden.

Methods: Self-reported data in four communities were used (n = 1,716). A large set of psychological and social factors were tried as predictors of early onset use (n = 1,459).

Results: There were few gender differences and low prevalence. Primary predictor for early onset in tobacco use was availability; perceived parental approval for alcohol use, and delinquent behaviors for alcohol-drunkenness and drug use.

Conclusions: Individual behavioral factors and parental norms seem to be most important in this age.

This article applies the concepts of place and space to understand youth and their engagement in risky behavior, such as drunkenness. It is based on the prolonged engagement with 23 underage youth coming from smaller municipalities in the south of Sweden. The study was comprised of semi-structured interviews, field visits, and observations at sites relevant for youths. In the stories narrated by youth, drunkenness is no longer an ad hoc activity conducted somewhere at the margins of society. The construction of drinking spaces was accomplished through highly managed, monitored, and organized practices, such as sending out invitations in advance, planning how much alcohol to drink, designating drivers, and securing transport means. Crucial to this was that spaces were products of relations existing between various youth, with no adults present. Spaces of drinking changed as those who participated in their construction changed. In addition, certain rules and codes of conduct (e.g. taking care of friends who drunk too much) were enforced to assure that the constructed spaces provided a sense of safety and enabled having fun. We conclude this article by arguing that a focus on place and space brings forward vital aspects in understanding the role of transforming party spaces that would otherwise remain obscure to social work knowledge and practice.

People with severe mental illness (SMI) are often described as lonely and socially incapable – an inability resulting from the mental illness. The aim of this article is to explore experiences of being alone among persons with SMI. The article is based on interviews with 19 persons diagnosed with psychosis who were interviewed between four and nine times over a period of three years. The findings show that experiences of being alone can be identified by two concepts: aloneness and loneliness. The persons in the study appeared as socially able and active in relation to their social lives. However, a social agent does not operate in a void but in interaction with specific living conditions; the experiences of aloneness and loneliness may be viewed as the result of the interplay between the individual and the social and material environment.

Ingress: En del saker återkommer i det allmänna medvetandet och forskas om, gång på gång. Dit hör bilden av de äldres isolering. Två emeritusprofessorer förhåller sig dock skeptiska till den hajpade Svenska Ensamheten.

Background and Purpose

The aim of this study was to explore the potential added value of performing a Rasch analysis on a reliable and valid instrument employed in nursing research and educational interventions, using the Students' Attitudes toward Sexual Health (SA-SH) as an example.

Methods

This study was performed with a polytomous Rasch model.

Results

The Rasch analysis confirmed the reliability and validity of the SA-SH. Rasch analysis presented information about the item's individual response options and gave the opportunity to judge how well different answers alternated in an item. The Rasch analysis also provided information about the proportion of extremes and the possibility of excluding these.

Conclusions

The Rasch analysis provides added value regarding information that needs to be considered regarding choices of questionnaire literacy compared to item fit. The SA-SH is also valid and reliable when tested with Rasch analysis.

Sexual health is an important area for social work. Social workers’ failure to address sexual health issues in social work practice, due to experienced discomfort, may create barriers toward clients, and lead to their decreased health. Investigating social work students’ attitudes toward sexual health, and their perceived competence in this area is crucial for developing social work education on sexual health issues. The aim of the present study was to explore Swedish social work students’ attitudes and perceived competence and educational needs regarding communicating about sexual health in their future profession. A quantitative study using the Students’ Attitudes toward Sexual Health (SA-SH) in a Swedish sample of 242 social work students. The students considered knowledge about sexual health as important for their future profession. The response patterns indicated that students considered themselves uncomfortable and insufficiently prepared to handle issues related to sexual health in their future profession, which may affect how they succeed in addressing the needs of their future clients. The conclusion of this study is that social work students are insufficiently prepared to address issues concerning sexual health in their future profession. Social work programs need to increase sexual health education as well as training in communicating about sexual health issues in order to meet the needs of the clients.

Previous research regarding social work related to sexual health and sexuality shows the importance of competence in this field for social workers and therefore is a need to explore students´ attitudes, knowledge and view on working with sexual health in their future profession. This project aims to psychometrically test the questionnaire Students’ Attitudes towards Addressing Sexual Health (SA-SH) for students in social work. The results show good content validity, construct validity, internal consistency and intra-rater reliability for the SA-SH for students in social work (response rate of 91%, 242 students). The SA-SH can therefore be recommended to be used to measure attitudes, believed competence, and knowledge regarding sexual health among social work students, and to follow up educational interventions.

Background:

Prosthetists and orthotists have a responsibility to direct treatment toward enabling their clients to perform desired activities and to facilitate participation of their clients in all areas of life. This may include provision of assistive technologies to help clients meet goals related to participation in sexual activities. To help prosthetic and orthotic students develop competencies in dealing with the sexual health of their future clients, it is necessary to generate knowledge of their own perceived competence and capacity.

Objectives:

To explore prosthetic and orthotic students’ attitudes and competence toward working with sexual health and to evaluate reliability and validity of the Students’ Attitudes Towards Addressing Sexual Health questionnaire.

Study design:

Cross-sectional study.

Methods:

Students enrolled in all three years of an undergraduate prosthetic and orthotic program were requested to complete the Students’ Attitudes Towards Addressing Sexual Health questionnaire (n = 65). Reliability and validity were evaluated using the content validity index and Cronbach’s alpha.

Results:

Students felt unprepared to talk about sexual health with future clients and thought that they would be embarrassed if they raised the issue. No differences were identified between students enrolled in each of the three years of the program and few differences were observed between male and female students. The content validity index values were low but improved as the students’ level of education increased. Internal consistency of the questionnaire was acceptable (α = 0.86).

Conclusion:

Prosthetic and orthotic students are unprepared to address sexual health issues with their future clients. There is a need to provide students with training related to sexual health issues.

Clinical relevance:

This study indicates the need for additional education of prosthetic and orthotic students in issues related to sexual health and how to address sexual health issues with clients. Results can be used to develop training programs for students and will serve to improve the sexual health of individuals who receive prosthetic and orthotic services.

Objectives: To test the reliability and validity of the Students' Attitudes Towards Addressing Sexual Health Questionnaire (SA-SH), measuring students' attitudes toward addressing sexual health in their future professions.

Method: A cross-sectional online survey (22 items) were distributed to 186 nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy students in Sweden, April 2015. Validity and reliability were tested.

Results: The construct validity analysis led to three major factors: present feelings of comfortableness, future working environment, and fear of negative influence on future patient relations. The construct validity, internal consistency reliability, and intrarater reliability showed good results.

Conclusion: The SA-SH is valid and reliable.

The aim of this study was to explore differences and similarities in health care students’ attitudes towards working with and communicating with patients about sexual health issues in their future professions. The aim was also to explore whether the students’ gender, age and future professions were influencing factors and whether there was a change in attitude depending on educational levels, gender, age and future professions. The study also aimed to explore the potential development of those differences and similarities in attitudes between health care students having achieved different levels of education and training in their future professions. A cross-sectional quantitative study was performed with an online survey distributed to nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy students. The students believed that they needed increased sexual health education and increased communication skills about sexual health. Gender and future profession are factors that significantly affect the attitudes of the students towards working with sexual health. Nursing and occupational therapy students have a more positive attitude towards addressing sexual health in their future professions than do physiotherapy students. Further research is needed in this field to improve competence in sexual health for all student groups, particularly physiotherapy students. Further research is also needed to explore the significance of gender regarding education in sexual health and attitudes towards working with sexual health.

The present dissertation aims to understand some of the opportunities for, and influences on, the social integration of adolescents of foreign origin in Sweden. Informed by previous research, the dissertation suggests that successful social integration involves friendship formation between peers of similar origins (intra-origin friendship formation) as well as friendship formation between peers of different origins (inter-origin friendship formation). Social integration can be difficult to achieve in practice because most individuals tend to be homophilic and form intra-origin friendships rather than inter-origin friendships.

Four studies based on longitudinal data are presented in the dissertation. The first study seeks to widen the understanding of refugee girls’ friendship formation through a qualitative analysis of interviews with refugee girls. The second study estimates stochastic actor-oriented models to investigate the friendship formation of adolescents with supportive and/or controlling parent-child relationships. The third article presents cross-lagged panel models for the reciprocal longitudinal associations between friendship formation and two forms of leisure: visits to youth centers and participation in structured leisure activities. Finally, the fourth study uses stochastic actor-oriented models to analyze with whom adolescents form friendships when they are involved in different forms of digital leisure, including online communication, video watching, and digital gaming.

The refugee girls in the qualitative study stated that they formed close friendships with family members, such as cousins and siblings, rather than with peers of native origin because they experienced the latter as too dissimilar from themselves. The adolescents in the first quantitative study formed relatively more inter-origin friendships when their parents were supportive and fewer inter-origin friendships when their parents were controlling. According to the third study, visits to youth centers were associated with a larger number of intra-origin friendships among adolescents of foreign origin, while participation in structured leisure activities, such as sports and cultural projects, was related to more friendship formation regardless of origin. The fourth study suggested that native adolescents who were involved in digital gaming formed fewer friendships with native peers and had fewer friends outside of the school class, and foreign adolescents who communicated more online formed fewer friendships with native classmates but more friendships outside of the school class.

All four studies indicate that the social integration of adolescents of foreign origin is not an automatic process that invariably happens when adolescents of different origins are mixed in the same location. When adolescents organize their own social lives away from the involvement of adults, they seem to remain or become more homophilic and form more friendships with peers of their own origin. By contrast, native and foreign adolescents tend to form more inter-origin friendships when adults provide them with support and structured social activities. In other words, the social integration of foreign adolescents seems to require supportive and committed adults, who contribute to facilitating inter-origin friendship formation.

In contemporary politics, the category of victimhood confers rights and recognition. An inclusive discussion about the construction and conferral of victimhood, which includes individuals from different social backgrounds, need be informed by the possible uses of victimhood in political discourse. The present study investigates how individuals and groups are positioned as victims by mainstream Swedish politicians. A constructionist discourse analysis inspired by positioning theory was performed of eight longer political speeches and fifty-six addresses to the Swedish parliament, held over the course of a year. The results suggest that individuals in the ‘normal’ majority, comprising the most numerous and normatively dominant group of society, were positioned as victims. Heterodox minorities, which had fundamentally different morals and political ambitions compared to the ‘normal’ majority, were positioned as offenders. The study argues that a more inclusive construction of victimhood could be accomplished by engaging with heterodox minorities through dialogue.

Adolescents who feel depressed are likely to experience social isolation from friends. Previous studies have put forward at least four hypotheses that can account for the association between felt depression and social isolation. The hypotheses are: (1) adolescents who are rejected tend to feel more depressed, (2) adolescents who feel depressed tend to become rejected, (3) adolescents who withdraw from friends tend to feel more depressed, and (4) adolescents who feel depressed tend to withdraw from friends. The present study aims to test these four hypotheses in ethnically diverse contexts in three countries. Two waves of data from England (n = 515), Sweden (n = 1,228), and Germany (n = 869) were obtained from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU). One separate stochastic actor-oriented model of the longitudinal coevolution of friendship networks and felt depression was estimated for each of the three countries using the statistical package RSiena. The results consistently indicated that, in all three countries, adolescents who felt depressed were rejected by their peers. Also, the results consistently indicated that adolescents who felt depressed sought more friends, and the results therefore refuted the suggestion that adolescents who feel depressed withdraw from their friends. The findings of the study can inform health-promotion interventions that attempt to limit the social isolation of adolescents who feel depressed in ethnically diverse contexts. More specifically, the study suggests that the social isolation of adolescents who feel depressed may be limited through interventions that reduce the rejection that these adolescents experience from their peers.

The social integration of adolescents of foreign origin is of much importance to contemporary Swedish politics, and knowledge is needed about the associations between different forms of leisure and social integration. The present study tests the associations between visits to youth centers and participation in structured leisure activities, on the one hand, and having friends regardless of origin, of native origin, and of foreign origin, on the other. Two-wave longitudinal data from 203 adolescents of foreign origin were collected, including friendship nominations from 1,185 peers. Cross-lagged panel models were constructed, controlling for relevant confounders. Visits to youth centers positively predicted the number of friends of foreign origin, while participation in structured leisure activities positively predicted the number of friends regardless of origin. In conclusion, structured leisure activities appear better than youth centers for promoting the social integration of adolescents of foreign origin into networks of friends of different origins.

Background: Participation comprises attendance and involvement in everyday situations. Picture My Participation (PmP) is an instrument intended to measure participation in children with disabilities, particularly in low and middle income countries.

Aim: To investigate content validity and usefulness of PmP for measuring participation in children with intellectual disability (ID) in South Africa and Sweden.

Methods: A picture supported interview with 149 children, 6?18 years, with and without ID. Twenty everyday activities were provided. The three most important activities were selected by the child. Attendance was rated on all activities. Involvement was rated on the most important.

Results: All activities were selected as important by at least one child with ID in both countries. There were similarities in perceived importance between the children with and without ID from South Africa. The children from South Africa with ID were the only subgroup that used all scale points for rating attendance and involvement.

Conclusion: The 20 selected activities of PmP were especially relevant for children with ID in South Africa. The usefulness of the scales was higher for the children with ID in both countries. PmP is promising for assessing participation across different settings but psychometrical properties and clinical utility need further exploration.

Purpose: Linking ready-made questionnaires to codes within the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version with the intention of using the information statistically for studying mental health problems can pose several challenges. Many of the constructs measured are latent, and therefore, difficult to describe in single codes. The aim of this study was to describe and discuss challenges encountered in this coding process.

Materials and methods: A questionnaire from a Swedish research programme was linked to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version and the agreement was assessed.

Results: Including the original aim of the questionnaire into the coding process was found to be very important for managing the coding of the latent constructs of the items. Items from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version chapters with narrow definitions for example mental functions, were more easily translated to meaningful concepts to code, while broadly defined chapters, such as interactions and relationships, were more difficult.

Conclusion: This study stresses the importance of a clear, predefined coding scheme as well as the importance of not relying too heavily on common linking rules, especially in cases when it is not possible to use multiple codes for a single item.

• Implications for rehabilitation

• The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version, is a useful tool for merging assessment data from several sources when documenting adolescents’ mental functioning in different life domains.

• Measures of mental health are often based on latent constructs, often revealed in the description of the rationale/aim of a measure. The latent construct should be the primary focus in linking information.

• By mapping latent constructs to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version, users of the classification can capture a broad range of areas relevant to everyday functioning in adolescents with mental health problems.

• The subjective experience of participation, i.e., the level of subjective involvement, is not possible to code into the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version. However, when linking mental health constructs to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version codes, the two dimensions of participation (the being there, and the level of involvement) need to be separated in the linking process. This can be performed by assigning codes focusing on being there as separate from items focusing on the subjective experience of involvement while being there.

BACKGROUND: Everyday routines play a vital role in child functioning and development. This study explored health professionals' documentation of everyday life and health care during the first year following gastrostomy tube placement in children and the content of intervention goals.

METHODS: The medical records of 39 children (median age 38 months, min-max: 15-192) in one region of Sweden were analysed. A content analysis approach was used with an inductive qualitative analysis supplemented by a deductive, quantitative analysis of documented intervention goals following the ICF-CY.

RESULTS: One overall theme, "Seeking a balance", captured the view of life with a gastrostomy and the health care provided. Two categories, "Striving for physical health" and "Depicting everyday life" with seven sub-categories, captured the key aspects of the documentation. Twenty-one children (54%) had intervention goals related to the gastrostomy, and these goals primarily focused on the ICF-CY component "Body functions".

CONCLUSIONS: To some extent the medical records reflected different dimensions of everyday life, but the intervention goals clearly focused on bodily aspects. Understanding how health care for children using a gastrostomy is documented and planned by applying an ecocultural framework adds a valuable perspective and can contribute to family-centred interventions for children using a gastrostomy. Implications for Rehabilitation There is a need for increased awareness in healthcare professionals for a more consistent and holistic healthcare approach in the management of children with gastrostomy tube feeding. This study suggests that an expanded focus on children's participation in everyday mealtimes and in the healthcare follow-up of gastrostomy tube feeding is important in enhancing the intervention outcome. Multidisciplinary teams with a shared bio-psycho-social understanding of health would contribute to a situation in which the everyday lives of households adapt to living with gastrostomy. Routine care for children with gastrostomy should follow a checklist combining crucial physiological aspects of gastrostomy tube feeding with seemingly mundane family functions in order to achieve a successful gastrostomy tube feeding intervention.

The SWEET project ‘Social Work Education Experts by Experience Toolkit’ aims at promoting the involvement of service users in Social work education. The project, financed by the French Erasmus+ Agency, involved 4 European countries: Belgium (Artevelde University of Applied Sciences), France (OCELLIA), Italy (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan), and Sweden (Jönköping University).

In these countries, Social work education is specific, although it is being harmonized as part of the Bologna process, and about the education of future social workers, they are facing common challenges, particularly those related to service users’ participation in the curriculum.

The four partners found in this project the opportunity to strengthen their models and experiences of service users' involvement and to contribute to the diffusion at the European level, developing and sharing conceptual and practice tools. The project, developed in the framework of an inclusive education model aimed to value Experiential knowledge, took place over three years (2020 and 2023) realizing different actions: an overview of pedagogical actions about service users’ involvement in each involved institution; 3 training sessions involving service users, social workers and lecturers; 3 students mobilities in which they experimented service users’ projects in other countries; the development of an online toolbox that can inspire and support lecturers in realizing service users’ participation.

These actions have been realized through a co-creation process involving lecturers, service users, experts by experience, and undergraduate social work students from each country. Several steps of this project have been accompanied by research actions.

This article elaborates on disability and the Qur’an and accentuates how a grand narrative of moral codes held the community together and enforced a collective identity of the ummah, in which disability was interlaced with the shaping of an in-group grounded in a common set of values. This process of identity making in turn had implications for people with disabilities, since they could have trouble fulfilling religious requirements, something that was met with counter mechanisms of solidarity within the community of Muslim believers.