| 1. |
- Egard, Hanna, et al.
(författare)
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”Tur att jag inte blev omprövad i år” : Samtal om ett villkorat liv med personlig assistans
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Universitetsforlaget. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 6:1, s. 20-31
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- “Luckily I wasn’t re-examined this year” – Talking about living conditions with personal assistanceSweden is often highlighted as a pioneering country in terms of personal assistance (PA) and human rights. However, research shows that the assessment of PA is guided by a medical understanding of disability and by austerity rather than by disability policy. Furthermore, the number of people with state-funded PA has decreased. The purpose of the article is to illuminate the contradictions that characterize life with PA in today’s Sweden. PA is about being able to influence one’s living conditions, to participate and to exercise self-determination, but also about lack of power and control since the right to PA can be withdrawn. The article draws on a participant-based research circle in which users and their representatives were among the participants. The results highlight the complex relationships between personal support and the opportunity to shape one’s existence. PA is considered crucial for everyday life, relationships, work and health. Contacts with the authorities evoke powerlessness, and the fear of losing the PA is palpable. The article contributes knowledge about the social aspects of disability and how reforms and cutbacks influence people’s lives. Such knowledge is essential as, in a Swedish context, PA has become a matter of need rather than of human rights.
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| 2. |
- Arnarsson, Ársaell Már, et al.
(författare)
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Time-trends in Nordic adolescents’ communication with their parents
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 4:2, s. 88-100
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Adolescence is an important developmental period toward greater independence. However, the family is still very important in the life of young people. The aim of this study was to analyse changes over time in easy communication between adolescents and their parents in the Nordic countries.The study used the Nordic part of Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, carried out in four waves from 2002–2014. It included 109,446 adolescents. The adolescents were asked how easy it was to communicate with their mother or father about things that really bothered them. The results were analysed using descriptive statistics and binomial logistic regression.In all Nordic countries, the prevalence of easy communication between adolescents and their parents increased from 2002 to 2014. Although the positive change in parental communication was more pronounced among Nordic fathers, the data showed that mothers had markedly better communication with their adolescents than fathers did. In 2014, around three out of four adolescents found it easy to talk with their fathers, while four out of five found it easy to talk with their mothers. The results indicate that policies in the Nordic countries to support the role of both mothers and fathers in caring for their children are warranted.
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| 3. |
- Brennan, Ciara, et al.
(författare)
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“Being Number One is the Biggest Obstacle”
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Universitetsforlaget. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 3:1, s. 18-32
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper was inspired by a peculiar theme that emerged from qualitative interviews in Iceland, Norway and Sweden with leaders of Centres for Independent Living (CILs). CILs are peer-led organisations that maximise user-control of disability services. Paradoxically, the Nordic reputation as forerunners in deinstitutionalisation and independent living was considered an impediment to implementing Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which requires “access to a range of support services, including personal assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community”. This contradiction prompted the questions: How is Article 19 implemented in Nordic welfare services? And why is previous progress towards independent living and personal assistance seen as an impediment to implementing the rights-based approach required by the Convention? The findings suggest that it is difficult to change a developed welfare system in which there are vested interests in maintaining the status quo. The reputation of “being number one” conceals problems such as inflexible services and the imbalance of power where the control of services lies with the system and the professionals, not the users.
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| 4. |
- Due, Pernille, et al.
(författare)
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Trends in high life satisfaction among adolescents in five Nordic countries 2002–2014
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 4:2, s. 54-66
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life satisfaction is an important indicator when assessing positive mental health aspects in populations, including among adolescents. The aim of this study was to investigate trends over time in prevalence of high life satisfaction among adolescents from five Nordic countries: Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden.We used data from four waves of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study from 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 (n=109,847). HBSC is a school-based study examining social circumstances, health and health behaviour among 11-, 13- and 15-years olds every four years in many European and North American countries. The Cantril Ladder, an 11-step visual analogue scale, was used as the measure of life satisfaction, and was dichotomised into two groups: high life satisfaction (scoring 9 or 10 on the scale) and medium/low life satisfaction (scoring <9).Over the 12-year period studied, between 28.6 and 44.8% of adolescents in the five countries rated their life satisfaction as high. Relatively large changes in prevalence levels occurred at the country level over the period. Denmark and Finland showed a steady, significant decline in the prevalence of high life satisfaction over the years. Iceland showed the highest prevalence in 2010. Norway and Sweden showed similar development until 2010, followed by a clear increase for Norway and a sharp decline in adolescent high life satisfaction for Sweden up until 2014. In all countries, high life satisfaction was most prevalent in 11-year- olds and least prevalent in almost all surveys among 15-year-old girls.
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| 5. |
- Eriksson, Charli, et al.
(författare)
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Building knowledge of adolescent mental health in the Nordic countries : An introduction to a Nordic research collaboration
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 4:2, s. 43-53
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Adolescence is an important developmental period. Young people face many pressures and challenges, including growing academic expectations, changing social relationships with family and peers, and the physical and emotional changes associated with maturation. Mental health is a broad concept, including positive mental health, mental health problems and psychiatric diseases. This introductory paper addresses the issue of positive mental health, and how existing data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC) may be used to deepen our knowledge of developments in mental health among adolescents in the Nordic countries.The Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study is a WHO collaborative cross-national study that now includes 48 countries, collecting data every four years from 1984 to 2018 on health, well-being, health behaviour and social environments. Data collection is carried out in school classes via self-completion of questionnaires. An asset of the study is that the HBSC focuses on understanding young people’s health in their social context at family, peer, school, neighbourhood, and country levels. The investment in the HBSC study gives unique opportunities for high-quality research and monitoring in the Nordic countries.The on-going Nordic research collaboration on positive mental health among adolescents uses the HBSC study as the research infrastructure for analysing trends as well as collecting new data on positive mental health. This special issue reports on trends when positive perspectives have been guiding the analysis of available data. The present research explores the potential of Nordic collaboration and comparative studies of school-aged children in the Nordic countries.
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| 6. |
- Eriksson, Charli, et al.
(författare)
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Towards enhancing research on adolescent positive mental health
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 4:2, s. 113-128
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The positive mental health and well-being perspective represents innovative public health research of first-rank priority in Europe. Good mental health is both a state and a resource for everyday life. Hence, the concept often refers to a subjective feeling (hedonic component) as well as positive functioning (eudaimonic component). Different conceptualisations of mental health-related issues are a background to this paper, which gives a brief overview of three research issues in the Nordic countries. First, the development in the occurrences of adolescent mental health-related indicators such as life satisfaction, health, sleep, and school pressure. Second, review of Nordic methodological studies reporting on different mental health-related measures. Third, the selection of measures of positive mental health employed in the 2017–2018 Health Behaviour among School-aged Children (HBSC) data collection in the Nordic countries. Using the Nordic HBSC data for 2002–2014, it was found that symptom and problem-oriented analyses of mental health can improve our understanding of the challenges adolescents face. However, there is also a need to examine positive aspects of mental health in order to enhance our understanding of different mental health-related dimensions. New measures were included in the 2017–18 HBSC data collection in the Nordic countries, enabling researchers to answer different research questions including analysing factors mediating and moderating positive mental health among school-aged children. Extending the perspective from a symptom- and problem-oriented view to a more positive and asset-based perspective adds additional value to studies of mental health.
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| 7. |
- Eriksson, Erik
(författare)
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Four features of cooptation : User involvement as sanctioned resistance
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Universitetsforlaget. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 3:1, s. 7-17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article draws on a three-year ethnographical study investigating how “service user involvement” was constructed (i.e. understood, implemented, and performed) within two large Swedish welfare organizations – a county-based psychiatric organization and a municipal social service administration (see Eriksson 2015). When analyzing the interactions between the user movement and the welfare organizations, a relationship much like cooptation (Selznick, 1949) was revealed. The article outlines four characteristic features of this coopting relationship: (1) The bonding between the parties, incorporating the user representatives in the organizations and their institutional logic; (2) The organizational framing of the user involvement activities; setting the initial rule for how to act/speak, where to act/speak, when to act/speak as well as what to speak about; (3) The organizational control exercised as the activities took place, directing the discussions and interaction to align with the interests of the welfare organizations; and (4) The resistance exercised by user representatives, enabling them to influence the organizations and contribute to change. Together, these four features disclose service user involvement as a “sanctioned resistance”: At the same time as the institutionalized service user involvement controls and constrains the way service user representatives act and pursue their goals, it gives them a possibility to challenge the welfare organizations from within. However, the influence that is permitted can be understood as adjustments within the prevailing institutional logic, rather than changes that transformed the organizations in more profound ways.
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| 8. |
- Grunfelder, Julien, et al.
(författare)
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How are the Nordic regions feeling? : A comparison of development potentials in the 66 Nordic regions
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 5:1, s. 20-39
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- By synthesising individual components of a complex system, composite indicators are ideally used to compare regional performance and to initiate public debates. The Regional Potential Index (RPI) provides an index value for each administrative region of the Nordic Region to enable cross-regional comparison of development potential and to illustrate the regional balance. Data from nine selected socio-economic indicators concerning demography, the labour force and the economy was used to construct the RPI. This article hence aims to show how regional development potential looks in different parts of the Nordic Region and how the regional balance has developed over recent years. The results demonstrate a continued strong position of urban regions, while those administrative regions that have improved their ranking are mainly found in the rural parts of the Nordic Region. The large majority of the analysed regions increased their score between 2017 and 2019, which indicates diminishing differences between these administrative regions in terms of development potential and a positive development regarding the cohesion policy. Yet, it is important to note that the geography of an administrative region and the lack of reliable data on cross-border flows, qualitative dimensions, and carbon dioxide emissions influence the results in the ranking.
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| 9. |
- Kankainen, Veera, et al.
(författare)
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Mundane constructs of the third and public sectors in the Finnish welfare state : A qualitative analysis of the gambling profit-based public grant system
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 6:3, s. 180-191
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study analyses everyday value constructs pertaining to the Finnish gambling profit-based state grant system – an institution that channels proceeds from the state gambling monopoly to the third sector. Recently, various experts have questioned the system because of its connections to gambling. Using the concept of mundane reasoning, the article maps out everyday understandings of the system. The study analyses three datasets that represent different mundane arenas: focus group interviews with Finnish citizens, interviews with welfare-promoting third-sector organizations, and articles from the Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. The results show that mundane ideas strengthen the role of the public sector as a primary service provider and the third sector in adding value to it. The article concludes that the gambling profit-based grant system represents both universalism and particularism in mundane reasoning. The arguments provided are important in view of the current discussions about the roles of the third and public sectors in the Nordic welfare state.
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| 10. |
- Löfstedt, Petra, et al.
(författare)
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Trends in perceived school stress among adolescents in five Nordic countries 2002–2014
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 1799-4691 .- 2464-4161. ; 4:2, s. 101-112
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Associations between school-related stress and poor health, risk behaviours and low well-being are well documented. The aim of this paper was to estimate trends of perceived school stress experienced by boys and girls of different ages in the Nordic countries, and to describe trends in school stress between the Nordic countries. Nordic data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC) between 2002 and 2014 were used. The participants were aged 11–16 years. School stress was measured by a single item; "How pressured do you feel by schoolwork?" The participants answering "some" or "a lot" were categorised as reporting school stress.Sweden, Norway and Denmark had lower prevalence of school stress compared to Finland and Iceland. There was an increase in Iceland, Finland and Denmark, whereas adolescents from Sweden showed a decreasing trend. In Norway, the level was stable. Boys showed a marginal decline in school stress whereas girls showed an increase, and school stress increased by age for the whole period. It is a challenge for the public education systems in the Nordic countries to develop policies and practices that provide children with the necessary tools to achieve knowledge and skill, and at the same minimise stress in school.
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