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.

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 study explores Middle Eastern men's narratives on how they adapt their fathering to new circumstances during resettlement in Sweden. It is based on individual interviews and diary notes collected over three years. Swedish policies encourage mothers as well as fathers to participate in paid labour and to be involved in household and child-care duties. Migrants who have been granted residency as refugees are entitled to extensive social welfare benefits, but they are also required to participate in language studies, accept trainee positions, and actively search for employment. The results of the present study suggest that the refugee fathers come to share daily chores and childcare with their spouse more equally than prior in their home countries. This new fatherhood is referred to in several ways: as a necessity to make family life work; as positive for the father?child relationship; and, as very time- and energy- consuming. Emerging masculinities and caring masculinities evolve in the analyses, and the results show comprehensive fathering, that is, fatherhood characterized by care, intimacy and love that are the result of hard, straining (reproductive) work that takes place with limited financial and/or cultural resources.

This study is based on 16 immigrant welfare-reliant women's discourses on motherhood in five focus groups. The women connect their mothering strategies for promoting discipline and their children's educational success with living on scarce finances: welfare dependence, children's education, and discipline are intertwined and recurrent themes that the interviews prompted. A dominant argument is that discipline diminishes the risk of school failure and deviant behaviour. Educational success is imperative for the children's chances to obtain employment and self-provision as adults; deviant behaviour must be stifled to avoid criminal activities, school failure, and future welfare dependence. The women argue that Swedish society obstructs their mothering through lax discipline in school, a disregard for parental authority, and restrictive welfare stipulations. They desire better support. This study widens our understandings of immigrant women's experiences of mothering on welfare, and informs political decision-makers and professionals in their work to develop supportive services for migrants.

Long-term unemployment with dependency on social assistance in Sweden has increased and is particularly high among foreign-born persons. The present study explored immigrant recipients' experiences of being welfare reliant. Swedish-Iraqi women's construction of exclusion and belonging in relation to policies and welfare regulations was scrutinised. The women referred to unemployment with frustration, expressing that it renders dependence on social welfare and enforces adherence to the stipulations of the social services. The individual's mobility and agency are restricted and concerted efforts to obtain employment are futile, which increase the sense of exclusion. However, the entitlement to social assistance also engenders feelings of belonging, of being connected to and cared for by the new country. More research is needed to examine the role that social assistance regulations play in forming feelings of belonging and exclusion. It appears essential that political initiatives be taken to reverse the trend of high unemployment among foreign-born persons.

In the present study, we investigate the meanings that having a child connotes for youngadults in Sweden. In a rare research design, we draw on both survey data and focus groupinterviews, and thus we utilize the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative information.The child connotes dependence and stability and is likely to restrict the personal freedom ofits parents, while at the same time children are supposed to make life more meaningful. Thispotentially creates ambivalent feelings about having a child, and possibly also about the(potential) child itself. We investigate and discuss the ambivalence found in the data byasking the following questions: How do men and women answer survey questions about thepositive and negative implications having a child may have on their life? How do men andwomen in focus group interviews reason about the implications a child may have on their life?Both sorts of data provide evidence that young adults in Sweden are concerned aboutrestrictions in their personal freedom as an expected negative consequence of becomingparents. The child connotes dependence and responsibilities in a society where independenceand self-actualization are highly valued, and may thus be referred to as non-modern. Judgingfrom the analysis of the survey data, it seems that young men are more worried aboutrestricted personal freedom than are the young women, and this is the main reason behindtheir feeling more ambivalent. Post-secondary education increases the likelihood that therespondent is ambivalent. The overwhelming majority, of both men and women, in the dataexpect to make the transition to parenthood, at some point in their life, as this is regarded as anatural step to take and that the child adds meaning to life being a symbol of dependence,belonging and social relations – also valued aspects of life. However, they appear to strive topostpone the transition, so that they can enjoy the unrestricted freedom of single life for quitesome time. This ambivalence is likely to contribute to an increasing age of becoming a motheror a father, without necessarily leading to more (final) childlessness. The present studycontributes to the understanding of what notions and ideals young adults face, reproduce andact in relation to. It illuminates contemporary connotations of the child, and the ambivalencethat different meanings of the child may cause.

The present study explores the discursive positioning of children in research articles on mental–health-promoting interventions. The questions under investigation are: are children positioned as active or passive agents, are children’s health and wellbeing contextualised, and if so how? How is the child perceived; that is, how are age, gender, socioeconomic status, family structure, dis/ability, and so on accounted for? We found that the positioning of the child as passive and formed by adults prevails; health is largely individualised and decontextualised in that it is depicted as being contingent on the person’s own capabilities. However, there are instances in which children are positioned as active subjects, their opinions are in focus, and their health and wellbeing are connected to social relations and context. We propose a more active discussion about how children and wellbeing are conceptualised in the outlining, implementation and research of public health interventions. Moreover, children – just like adults – should be increasingly regarded as service users who are entitled to have a say in matters that concern them.

Drygt femtio år har förlupit sedan "Miljöterapi" först dök upp som en trend inom den psykiatriska vården. Nästan trettio år har gått sedan det blev ett hedersbegrepp inom missbrukar- och ungdomsvården. Finns då något kvar att säga? Begreppet används också idag.

Vad står det för? Och hur ser det psykosociala arbete ut i praktisk utövning, som kallas "Miljöterapi"? Är miljöterapi en metod, en behandlingsideologi, ett förhållningssätt eller en organisationsform? Eller rentav alltihop samtidigt? Varifrån hämtar miljöterapin sina förklaringsmodeller och metodteorier? Boken är avsedd som diskussionsunderlag vid vidareutbildning för behandlingspersonal, men också som grundlitteratur för högskolor och folkhögskolor.

Samtidigt vill bokens författare bidra till att få mer fart på den kunskapsutvecklande debatten om god och effektiv behandling. De bjuder in läsaren till ett fortsatt samtal utifrån miljöterapins historia, tillämpning idag och tänkbara utvecklingsmöjligheter

The present paper explores Middle Eastern men’s narratives on everyday family life and fatherhood in Sweden. The analysis is based on individual interviews and diary notes. Swedish society differs from Middle Eastern societies in many respects; it offers comprehensive rights to extensive social welfare benefits, but also demands that newly arrived migrants participate in language studies, accept trainee positions, and actively search for employment. These requirements apply to mothers as well as fathers. Life in Sweden is challenging for refugees; many face long-term unemployment and welfare dependence. The present analysis shows how Syrian and Iraqi fathers’ downward social mobility, with radically changed material and financial means, influences their caring and domestic practices. In part, they take on ‘female’ duties and share chores with their spouse more equally. The study illuminates that fathering is dynamic and prone to change; (migrant) men adjust their strategies to provide the best possible circumstances and future prospects for their children. This challenges the notion that (migrant) fathering and masculinity are fixed.

The present study explores a local initiative to develop parent support services through the school system. In focus are the discourse on home–school relations and parent support and the interplay between discourse and practical occurrences. Official documents, interviews and notes from municipal meetings and informal conversations were obtained from a local authority during 2009–2013. The results show that the education system is discursively positioned as an important player for the administration and organisation of parent support. All the same, opposing arguments are given precedence in decisions concerning what home–school relations should entail. The study explicates that parent support, when connected to compulsory education, is preferably conceptualised as part of and contingent on the forms and characteristics of home–school relations. Furthermore, it makes evident that the term school is recurrently used as a synonym of teachers. This has implications for both home– school relations and parent support.

Handledning är av central betydelse för en doktorands arbete och genomströmning. I föreliggande studie granskas kriterier för att handledningen ska uppnå hög kvalitet. Frågorna som står i fokus är: Vad karaktäriserar bra handledning, och hur kan handledningens kvalitet värderas och stärkas? Diskussionen baserar på tidigare forskning, styrdokument och intervjuer med några erfarna handledare. Resultaten tyder på att strukturellt och formaliserat stöd i forskningsmiljön såväl som vid handledningsträffarna gynnar handledningens kvalitet och doktorandens möjligheter att vid disputation nå examensmålen. Handledaren behöver vara flexibel och reflexiv i sitt förhållningssätt, eftersom doktoranders behov och förutsättningar skiljer sig och också förändras under utbildningens gång. Samtidigt behöver handledaren förhålla sig till olika krav, vilka kan skapa dilemman och leda till en svår balansgång i handledningen. Viktigt är att handledaren tar ansvar för att handledningen och relationen fungerar väl för samtliga inblandade parter, och uppmuntrar till samtal om problem och svårigheter när de uppstår. Samtidens krav på effektivitet och genomströmning fordrar arbetsplatsens och kollegiets stöd i handledningen, med ett kollektivt ansvar för doktorandens utbildning och utveckling.

The present report focuses on interorganizational co-operation between the social services and schools. It contains a literature review of the Swedish research and national guidelines from 2000 onwards, as well as a brief theoretical discussion on different forms of co-operation. The thematic categorization of previous research resulted in such recurrently raised topics as the following: Assignment of responsibilities and tasks; Information, consultation, and meetings; Interprofessional teams; Service user perspectives and the importance of relations; Knowledge about co-operation and research-based practice. The review concludes that the responsibilities assigned to different actors are diffuse. At times, schools are given too great a responsibility for individual child evaluations and care, and their main task of providing education is disregarded by, for instance, the social services. Schools, on the other hand, ask for more support from child psychiatry clinics and the social services. Blaming others for failing services and/or assigning others responsibilities they do not have a mandate, funding or the competences for may be the result of limited resources and/or lack of knowledge about and respect for other partners in the co-operation. Sharing information is frequently brought up as an important aspect of collaborative work, as are consulting one another with regard to evaluations and interventions. Constructive interprofessional meetings require trust, commitment, competence, clearly defined goals, and relational continuity. This also applies to interprofessional teamwork. The opinions and experiences of service users need more acknowledgment, in practice and in the research. The benefits of co-operation for children and families are uncertain, and must be further explored. Co-operative activities should be initiated only if they will undoubtedly result in better services for the individual child. There is a lack of studies focusing on co-operation from the perspective of the social services. Furthermore, the discussions in the guidelines as well as in the research would have benefited from more elaborated theoretical reasoning on how different forms of co-operation influence work to promote children’s health and learning. Finally, the present report calls for a critical discussion on how the concept of co-operation is applied.

Purpose: This paper examines intergenerational, interdependent and contextual aspects of wellbeing and acculturative stress in refugee families during resettlement. Particular focus is placed on how children influence their parents.

Method: The study is based on interviews with and diary notes from Middle Eastern parents and children residing in Sweden.

Results: Analyzes of the narratives show how the direct and indirect influence of the child affects the parents in both negative and positive ways. Acculturative stress follows from unexpected and undesired migration outcomes, such as parent-child conflicts and low school achievement. Such strains add to other hardships refugee families face, for instance, unemployment, welfare dependence, poor housing, and insufficient mastery of the majority language. However, acculturative stress can be alleviated by the children's educational success, and reciprocal practices of love and caring including helping out with chores and supporting each other in different ways.

Conclusions: Children's agency has significant effects on parents' wellbeing, as wellbeing is accomplished in and through relationships with others.

Unga föräldrar idag påverkas inte bara av barncentrerade föräldraskapsideal, utan också av ideal om att måna om sina egna behov. En god förälder tar inte bara ansvar för sitt barn - han eller hon behöver också ansvara för sig själv och sitt eget välbefinnande.

In 2009, the Swedish National Institute of Public Health instigated the development of and research on universal parental support services by funding projects in which local authorities collaborated with universities. The overarching goals were to increase health-promoting services to parents and to increase the integration of services across different actors within the municipality as well as between local authorities and private organizations. The present report investigates efforts to intensify the co-operation of parental support services between The Department of Culture and Leisure (DCL), The Department of Education (DE), and The Department of Social Services (DSS) in a middle-sized Swedish municipality. The study is based on document analyses, notes from meetings and conferences, and interviews with local politicians and civil servants. The data were continuously collected over a two-year period, 2010-2011. The main results are:

• The reasons for developing universal parental support were unclear among many politicians and civil servants, i.e. those who were to implement the ideas, as were the benefits of the departments working together. This, clearly, obstructed achievement of the project goals.
• The vagueness with which the responsibility for offering parent support is regulated in national ordinances affects prioritysetting negatively. The question of responsibility has been recurrently negotiated among the local departments – who is responsible?
• In addition, negotiations concerning who is responsible have been affected by the unclear definition of universal parental support. Thus, the questions have been: Who is responsible, and for what? These uncertainties have had a negative impact on efforts to increase co-operation on parental support services.
• Despite obstacles of various kinds, it is important to note that the project has instigated new ways of working with parental support; it has put it on the political agenda, and two of the departments decided to co-finance some services in 2012.

I skollagberedninges förslag till ny skollag föreslås att förskolan ska bli en egen skolform. Uppdraget är att utforma verksamheten så att omsorg, lärande och utveckling bildar en helhet. Lärande och utveckling har dock fått allt större genomslag - också i verksamheter där små barn med stora omsorgsbehov befinner sig.

Barn, barndom och föräldraskap handlar om några av samhällets viktigaste angelägenheter – barnet och föräldrarna. Detta är områden som vi alla har erfarenheter av och som har betydelse på alla plan i samhället. Frågor som rör barn, barndom och föräldraskap är ständigt närvarande i samhällsdebatt och politik liksom i människors vardag. De är idag också betydelsefulla kunskapsområden och forskning pågår inom en rad olika discipliner. I denna bok medverkar 21 forskare från skilda forskningstraditioner. Utifrån olika perspektiv skriver de om en rad olika frågor: Hur gränserna för vad som är ett barn har dragits historiskt; betydelsen av barns insatser och arbete; barns ställning som medborgare; hur människor, verkliga och fiktiva, förhandlar positioner i de vardagsliv som levs i familjen, förskolan och skolan; synen på föräldraskap och hur föräldrar ser på uppfostran och barns behov. Boken innehåller också texter som diskuterar teoretiska redskap för att utveckla forskning kring barn, barndom, föräldraskap och familj. barn, barndom och föräldraskap är angelägen läsning för alla som av olika skäl intresserar sig för barns villkor och plats i samhället.

Bokens redaktörer är Ann-Marie Markström, Linköpings universitet; Maria Simonsson, Linköpings universitet; Ingrid Söderlind, Institutet för Framtidsstudier i Stockholm och Linköpings universitet och Eva Änggård, Stockholms universitet.

The present paper conducts a conceptual analysis of how parent support is recontextualised when connected to the education system in a Swedish local authority. Official documents and interviews with officials are analyzed. The study shows that in the discourse on parent support, supporting activities are commonly connected to the teachers, and consequently the teachers are made responsible for the provision of support. The student health services or other professionals such as leisure time personnel are less prominent in the discourse. The paper asks for reflection on the part of compulsory schooling in health promoting and risk preventing work.

This study is an exploration of how young Swedish adults talk about intimate relationships and the transition to parenthood. It is suggested that people carefully reflect over their relationship with their partner before deciding to embark on parenthood, and it is shown that reproductive decision making is imbued with contradictory ideals that may cause stress and anxiety. To have and to raise a child in a nuclear family arrangement is one prominent ideal that is illuminated by this study, but parallel with this is the notion of intimate relationships breaking down, dwindling. These two discourses are contradictory and create dilemmas in the process of family formation. Some individuals find the risk of relationship dissolution especially stressful, drawing on their own childhood experiences of growing up with separated parents. This is a study based on focus group interviews containing men and women, ranging from 24 to 39 years old, with different educational, occupational and geographical backgrounds, some are parents and some are not. The data are analysed using a discourse analytical approach, and much of the discussion is based on Anthony GIDDENS', Zygmunt BAUMAN's and Ulrich BECK and Elisabeth BECK-GERNSHEIM's reasoning about love and intimacy in the contemporary Western world. © 2006 FQS.

Barndomen och naturen ses ofta som sammankopplade med varandra. Naturen uppfattas som god för barn och barn anses må bra av att vara i naturen. Men hur har egentligen  denna tankefigur uppstått och vad hänger samman med den i det pedagogiska arbetet med barn. Här diskuterar en rad framstående forskare hur barn och natur förhåller sig till varandra, alltifrån Rousseau. Vilka filosofiska ingångar finns i relationen människa/natur, hur förhåller sig natur och kultur till varandra, hur visualiseras naturen i t ex skolfilmer. Vidare granskas natur och barndom i förskolans utbildningsmaterial, liksom natur och genus. Och vilken plats har naturen i barndomsminnen.Bokens skribenter kommer från olika forskningsfält. Gunilla Halldén är professor på tema Barn vid Linköpings universitet.  Hennes forskning har rört föräldrars vardagspsykologi, barns föreställningar om familj samt barndomsbegreppets förändring under 1900-talet. Tidigare utgivning bl a Barnet och boet (2001) och Den moderna barndomen (2007).

Der Band führt eine theoretische und empirische Auseinandersetzung um die Handlungsfähigkeit Jugendlicher und junger Erwachsener, die die Perspektive auf Jugend als Akteurin sozialen Wandels mit der Analyse struktureller Barrieren und Voraussetzungen dialektisch verknüpft. Es werden Befunde aus nationalen und international vergleichenden Studien vorgestellt und unter der Frage der Handlungsfähigkeit im sozialen Wandel diskutiert. Was bestimmt das Handeln von jungen Frauen und Männern? Sind sie eher Opfer oder eher aktiv Gestaltende der Verhältnisse und des sozialen Wandels? Handeln sie anders als frühere Generationen, anders als Erwachsene und Institutionen es erwarten? Oder tragen sie durch ihr Handeln gar zum sozialen Wandel bei? Der vorliegende Band führt eine theoretische und empirische Auseinandersetzung um die Handlungsfähigkeit Jugendlicher und junger Erwachsener, die die Perspektive auf Jugend als Akteurin sozialen Wandels mit der Analyse struktureller Barrieren und Voraussetzungen dialektisch verknüpft. Im Zentrum stehen drei Konstellationen des Übergangs in das Erwachsenenalter, an denen sich der Wandel von jugendlichen Lebensverhältnissen in vielen europäischen Gesellschaften besonders konturiert zeigt: - die Familiengründung – unter dem Aspekt des Übergangs in Elternschaft, - der Übergang in Erwerbsarbeit – besonders prekär unter dem Aspekt von Übergängen Jugendlicher mit Migrationshintergrund und - die Übernahme politischer Verantwortung und des Staatsbürgerstatus – also die tatsächliche Partizipation Jugendlicher. Zu diesen drei Konstellationen werden Befunde aus nationalen und international vergleichenden

There is a general trend of postponing entry into parenthood in Europe, Scandinavia being no exception. Previous research has suggested a range of reasons for this pattern to emerge, but comparatively little attention has been given the possible impact of the social network on the decision to try for a child. This paper explicates ways in which young Swedish adults in focus group discussions reason about the impact of friends and family in their reproductive decision-making. The analysis is based on a discourse analytical approach and inspired by social influence theory. The result of the focus group data indicates that the desire to maintain belonging and rootedness to friends as well as to kin is influential in procreative decision-making. Friends and family are recurrently referred to in the participants’ reasoning about when parenthood is preferably entered.

The present thesis is a qualitative study of reproductive decision-making. It explores ways in which Swedish young adults talk about the timing of parenthood, the ideal life, good parenthood and the auspicious childhood. The work contributes to the debate on why fertility rates are declining and why the transition to parenthood is being postponed in the contemporary Western world.

The empirical analysis is based on focus group data including in total 35 participants, between 24 and 39 years of age, with varying educational, occupational, and geographical backgrounds. The participants were new first-time parents, a few who were expecting their first child and some who were childless. The broad guiding questions of the focus group discussions were the timing of parenthood, the general postponement of parenthood, and the childless life contra life as a parent.

The focus group method proved to be very useful in exploring ideas and ideals related to the timing of parenthood, as did the discourse analytical approach that was applied. The study illuminates the complexity of reproductive decision-making; it is an exploration of a range of notions and discourses that impact on people’s lives and ways of understanding the world, such as discourses on kin, family, friendship, the romantic relationship, parenthood, age, biology, and the independent, individualized individual. It is also a study of individual positioning towards different, often contradictory ideals, and individual strategies when trying to solve the pertinent dilemmas caused by contrasting notions. Thus, the study is an exploration of general, cultural discursive structures as well as of the different ways in which the subject actively draws upon them.

This article explores refugee girls’ talk about friendship formation. Friendship is a complex process and a subjective experience. The study participants stressed similarity and cultural affinity as important criteria of forming friendships. Those who attended schools with a mixture of students described their native peers as having different temperaments and interests. Relatives were referred to as being best friends who one could trust and confide in. This suggests the need for a broad conceptualisation of friendship in research and practice.

The present study examines adult–child touch and its functions in a Swedish preschool (for 1 to 5-year-old children). The data are naturalistic observations and video-recorded data of everyday preschool activities. The study describes the frequently occurring functions of educators’ haptic conduct (control, affectionate, affectionate-control, assisting and educative touch), discussing them in relation to the children's age, gender and type of the preschool activity. It reveals the complexity of touch, demonstrating that physical contact is used for a variety of purposes in the educators’ daily work. The educators employed touch without force, and the children did not respond with explicit and forceful resistance (such as pushing back or otherwise protesting). Adult-initiated haptic behaviour served a continuum of social purposes – from social–relational work, such as establishing and building affectively positive, caring, social relations, to practical and educative organisational efforts to manage the complex and busy preschool life. The distribution of adult–child touch categories brings attention to the bodily aspects of the early childhood educational setting and highlights some of the ways in which the requirements of the Swedish curriculum for Preschool and its focus on educare are actualised in the educators’ embodied conduct.

Jämlikhet och jämlika villkor betyder att alla har samma möjligheter att utvecklas, tillgodogöra sig utbildning, uppnå god socioekonomisk standard, vara vid god hälsa och uppnå sin fulla potential. Ojämlika villkor innebär att vissa grupper har sämre chanser än andra till utveckling, lärande och välmående. Denna rapport handlar om ungdomar och unga vuxna i Sverige mellan åldrarna 13 och 25 år. Syftet är att sammanställa svenska studier från 2008 till 2016 som granskar ungdomars uppväxt- och levnadsvillkor och hur dessa skiljer sig beroende på kön, ursprung, ekonomiska förutsättningar och funktionsnedsättning.

Rapporten har särskilt fokus på följande områden: ekonomiska villkor, boende, utbildning, sysselsättning, hälsa, fritid, inflytande och delaktighet samt brottslighet och utsatthet för brott. Den bygger på två typer av material: nationella rapporter från svenska statliga myndigheter och organisationer, och vetenskapligt granskade forskningsstudier. Rapporten visar att majoriteten av ungdomar och unga vuxna i Sverige har goda uppväxt- och levnadsvillkor. Välståndet och de ekonomiska förutsättningarna har ökat de senaste tjugo åren. Samtidigt har den fattigaste andelen av befolkningen blivit större, och dessa har inte kunnat ta del av den generella förbättringen. Det framkommer tydligt att låg ekonomisk standard påverkar ungdomars och unga vuxnas övriga levnadsvillkor negativt med bland annat ökad risk för fysisk och psykisk ohälsa, bristfälliga relationer till vänner och föräldrar, kriminalitet, utsatthet för brott och otrygghet, trångboddhet, låga studieresultat, arbetslöshet, bidragsberoende och ingripanden av den sociala barnavården. Det är särskilt ungdomar som bor med ensamstående föräldrar (vanligtvis mamman), har utrikes födda föräldrar och/eller lever i hushåll med låg socioekonomisk status som drabbas av följderna.

Skolgången har mycket stor betydelse för ungdomars hälsa, välmående och framtida möjligheter till utbildning och sysselsättning. Oavsett familjeförhållanden är godkända betyg och bra relationer till klasskamrater och lärare viktiga för att minska risken för ohälsa. Flickor presterar bättre än pojkar i skolan, men uppvisar i högre grad stressrelaterade psykosomatiska problem och etablerar sig senare på arbetsmarknaden. Det är framför allt pojkar med utländskt ursprung som uppvisar problem i skolan och runt hälften saknar behörighet till gymnasiet efter årskurs nio.

Ungdomar och unga vuxna som vuxit upp i familjer med behov av försörjningsstöd, haft en kontaktperson genom socialtjänsten och/eller varit placerad i boende utanför hemmet är särskilt utsatta. De löper stor risk för misslyckad skolgång, fysisk och psykisk ohälsa, kriminalitet och förtidig död.

Rapporten belyser områden i behov av ökad kunskap. Mer kunskap behövs om levnadsvillkoren för unga med olika former av funktionsnedsättningar. Detsamma gäller för hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck, som många flickor och kvinnor lever under. Generellt kan sägas att mer kunskap behövs om hur ungdomar och unga vuxna själva förstår och upplever sin livssituation, inte minst om hur de handlar och vilka strategier de tillämpar för att påverka sitt liv och sin framtid. Forskning om ungdomar i tidiga tonåren (13–14 år) samt unga vuxna (20–25 år) är inte lika vanligt förekommande som forskning om äldre tonåringar (15–19 år). Av de områden som rapporten särskilt fokuserar på behövs mer kunskap om fritidsaktiviteter, delaktighet och inflytande samt brottslighet och utsatthet för brott.

Det presenteras även en rad förslag som kan vara till underlag vid det fortsatta arbetet med att förbättra ungdomars och unga vuxnas levnadsvillkor i Sverige. Exempelvis behövs fler och effektivare interventioner för de grupper som i denna rapport har identifierats som marginaliserade. Villkoren behöver förbättras för ungdomar och unga vuxna i socioekonomiskt utsatta bostadsområden, resurssvaga familjer med eller utan försörjningsstöd, unga placerade i dygnsvård utanför hemmet, unga med funktionsnedsättning, missbruk eller i behov av psykiatrisk vård, unga som står utan sysselsättning, och unga som begår eller utsätts för brott. Åtgärder för att säkerställa en likvärdig skolgång och möjliggöra för skolväsendet att uppfylla sitt kompensatoriska uppdrag är viktiga för att förbättra levnadsvillkoren.

Lone mothers are a diverse group but it has been argued in the previous research that they tend to be homogenised. This article explores representations of single mothers in Swedish newspapers. Material from the two largest morning papers and the two largest tabloids was collected from the years 2015–2017. The results of the study suggest that although the newspaper representations do not fully reflect the diversity of social realities, there are indeed varying images of lone mothers in the sample. A recurring representation is as a comparatively poor and hardworking—even heroic—woman, who in political argumentation is referred to as someone in need of societal support and policy reforms. A less frequent representation, that often occurs in lengthy, in-depth pieces, is the affluent official person who despite her prosperity struggles with combining single (good) motherhood with her career, or the middle-class woman who becomes a lone mother via assisted reproductive technologies. Teenage motherhood (i.e., age), race/ethnicity, sexuality, and welfare dependence are seldom, if at all, alluded to. There is no vilification or condemnation of the lone mother, as has been found in research on other national contexts. 

Title: ‘Learning in interaction’ – a locally adaptable manual-based refresher course for teachers, emphasising the child’s perspective and learning as an interactive process.

The present report investigates a manual-based refresher course for school staff. The aim of the course is to provide the teachers with strategies on how to improve the relationship between children and teachers, and how to reduce behaviour that causes problems for learning/teaching. A central feature of the course is positive reinforcement as a way to behavioural change. The course consists of 8 meetings, 3 hours each, with 6-8 teachers and an instructor. The results are based on three different materials; a) text analysis of the course manual, b) notes from observations of course meetings, 3 groups of teachers from three schools, in total 24 course meetings, 72 hours and 250 pages, and c) 4 group interviews with teachers and 1 group interview with the instructors and developers of the course.

Central findings:

• The manual is based on acknowledged theories on learning, interaction and behavior where learning as an interactive process, between child and teacher, is emphasized.
• The course provides the teachers with strategies on how to improve social relations and learning.
• The child’s perspective is a central topic, reflected upon and discussed in all unfolding parts of the course.
• The course admits to local adaptations tailored in relation to the targeted school, its teachers and students.
• The course provides the teachers with an arena where interacttional aspects of teaching and learning, pedagogical issues and preventive strategies are discussed and shared, an arena not provided for within the ordinary school organization.

Relational care, interpersonal intimacy and emotional attunement are crucial for children's development and wellbeing in ECEC. The present study examines how they are enacted in a Swedish preschool (for 1-5-year-olds) through recurrent adult-child physical conduct, i.e. affectionate and affectionate-controlling touch. The data consist of 24 hours of video-recorded observations of everyday activities. The study shows that educators' Affectionate-Comforting touch was used for emotion regulation as compassionate response to children's distress; Amicable touch engaged children in spontaneous affection; and, Affectionate-Controlling touch was used to mildly control and direct the child's bodily conduct and participation in preschool activities, or to mitigate the educators' verbal disciplining. The study demonstrates the emotional complexity of ECEC enacted through the practices of haptic sociality. It supports the holistic policies arguing that embodied relational care should be integrated in ECEC, contrary to ideas that connect professionalism with emotional distance and lack of physical contact.

Relational care, interpersonal intimacy and emotional attunement are crucial for children’s development and wellbeing in ECEC. This study examines how they are enacted in a Swedish preschool (1 to 5-year-olds) through recurrent adult-child touch. Research shows that tactile caregiver – child contact is essential for development and wellbeing. However studies on touch in preschools are scarce. Theories on care, intimacy and embodiment inform the study. Care implies to protect, nurture and train. It is relational, depending on the one-caring as well as the cared-for (Nodding). The study is informed by theories of care and sociocultural perspectives. It is based on video-ethnography (35 hours) of naturally occurring preschool activities. Data were coded into: teacher – child touch and functions of touch. Written consent was obtained from parents and teachers. The person video-recording was sensitive to children’s reactions, and stopped when there were signs of discomfort. The study shows that educators’ Affectionate-Comforting touch was used for emotion regulation as compassionate response to children’s distress, amicable touch engaged children in spontaneous affection. Affectionate-Controlling touches mildly controlled and directed the child’s participation in preschool activities, or mitigated verbal disciplining. They were instrumental as compassionate acts that sustained positive relations in potentially challenging situations. The study supports the holistic policies arguing that embodied relational care should be integrated in ECEC, since they provide a fruitful connection between intimacy based social relations children experience in families, and in early childhood education, in contrast to ideas that connect professionalism with emotional distance and lack of physical contact.

I denna rapport sammanfattas arbetet som bedrivits av forskarna vid tema Barn, Linköpings universitet, inom ramen för projektet Samverkande föräldrastöd: nätverk för forskning och utveckling. Projektet har pågått under 2010 och 2011, och är ett samarbete mellan Linköpings kommun, omgivande kommuner i Östergötland, landstinget i Östergötland, idéburna organisationer, Centrum för kommunstrategiska studier, och Linköpings universitet. Projektet är finansierat av Folkhälsoinstitutet, och ingår i en större satsning initierad av Socialdepartementet, som tilldelat medel till kommuner och lärosäten för att utveckla metoder för förebyggande arbete kring föräldrastöd och barns psykiska hälsa.

I slutet av 2008 publicerades den statliga utredningen om föräldrastöd, Föräldrastöd – en vinst för alla: Nationell strategi för samhällets stöd och hjälp till föräldrar i deras föräldraskap (SOU 2008:131), där kommuner, landsting och ideella organisationer uppmuntras utveckla och samordna föräldrastöd i olika former. Den nationella strategin betonar generella insatser, det vill säga insatser som är riktade till alla föräldrar med barn mellan 0-18 år. Generella insatser syftar huvudsakligen till att förebygga viss problematik (prevention) och främja hälsa (promotion). Föräldrastöd definieras som ”ett brett utbud av insatser som föräldrar erbjuds ta del av och som syftar till att främja barns hälsa och psykosociala utveckling” (SOU 2008:131, s. 45). Sommaren 2009 utlyste Folkhälsoinstitutet medel som kommuner i samverkan med ett lärosäte kunde söka för att utveckla det generella förebyggande föräldrastödet. I Linköpings kommun gav ansvariga politiker tjänstemän i uppdrag att söka samarbetspartners vid universitetet och sammanställa en ansökan. Tema Barn, Institutionen för Tema, Linköpings universitet, kontaktades och en gemensam ansökan för projektmedel skrevs fram, efter en inventering av föräldrastödjande insatser i länets kommuner och utvecklingsbehov. I slutet av 2009 beviljade FHI medel till projektet ’Samverkande föräldrastöd – nätverk för forskning och utveckling’, med Linköpings kommun och tema Barn som huvudsökande.

Sweden is known as a social welfare state, whereby the people who reside in Sweden are entitled to certain public benefits at little or no cost to the individual. Over the past century, Sweden has reshaped its culture, growing from one of the poorest nations in Europe to a flourishing country that others emulate, especially with respect to their family policies. Sweden has developed several foundational family policies that have helped to encourage equality, while establishing a sense of individuality. Sweden has created similar rights for cohabiters/married couples, as well as for same-sex/opposite-sex couples. Parents receive a generous parental leave package, flexible employment choices, and there is a low gender wage gap, while children receive high-quality childcare, free health care, free dental care, free mental health services, and a substantial child welfare program. Swedish family policies encourage both parents to work and to help each other with household and childcare tasks. Despite the public benefits that Sweden provides for mothers, fathers, and children, there is still a need for further improvements regarding policies on domestic violence, poverty, and child welfare. Assessments of Sweden’s family policies are discussed.