| 1. |
- Nygren, Karina, et al.
(författare)
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Adolescent self-reported health in relation to school factors : a multilevel analysis
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of School Nursing. - : Sage Publications. - 1059-8405 .- 1546-8364. ; 30:2, s. 114-122
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the study was to examine school-related determinants of self-reported health among adolescents. Questionnaire survey data comprising 4,972 students, Grades 7 through 9, from 20 schools in northern Sweden were used. Also, complimentary data about each school were collected from the Swedish National Agency for Education. Using multilevel logistic regression analyses, results showed that most variation in self-reported health was explained by individual-level differences. Truancy, bullying, and poor relations with teachers significantly increased the odds ratio of reporting poor general health, for boys and for girls. Most variables at the school level, for example, school size and student-teacher ratio, did not render significant associations with students' self-reported health. In conclusion, this study indicates that health promotion at school, including school health services, may benefit from focusing primarily on individual-level determinants of health, that is, students' relations to peers and teachers, without ignoring that bullying and weak student-teacher relationships also may induce school-level interventions.
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| 2. |
- Nygren, Karina, 1974-
(författare)
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Adolescent self-reported health in the Umeå region : Associations with behavioral, parental and school factors
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of a quantitative and a qualitative study. The quantitative study (articles I-III) aimed to examine how self-reported health in adolescence is associated with behavioral, parental, and school factors. Through a survey directed at all adolescents in grades 7-9, data were collected in 2005 in a region in northern Sweden (n=5060). Statistical methods were used to analyze the survey data: chi2tests, multivariate logistic regressions and multilevel logistic regressions. Results showed that even though most adolescents reported good health, there were also rather large proportions of adolescents who reported headaches, stomach aches and feelings of stress. Girls reported poor health to a higher extent than boys, a difference that was larger in grade 9 than in grade 7. The results also showed that being norm compliant was associated with good self-reported health. Furthermore, perceiving relations and communication with parents as poor was associated with poor self-reported health; however, this relationship could not explain gender differences in self-reported health. Continuing on, analyses showed that there exist greater variations in self-reported health between students (within a school) than between different schools. On an individual level, poor relations to teachers, bullying and truancy were associated with poor general health. The qualitative study (article IV) sought to examine barriers to and facilitators of utilization of local school survey results within a school setting. In 2011, 21 school district managers and principals within a Swedish municipality were interviewed. Analyses were performed using a qualitative content analysis. The results from the qualitative study showed that the dissemination and utilization of school survey results appeared as two interrelated phases in one process. Barriers and facilitators differed qualitatively depending on the phase, dissemination or utilization.In conclusion, professionals as well as researchers need to consider the complexity of adolescent health and its social determinants. Adolescent health is a concern for multiple sectors in society, which highlights the need for further development of collaborations between professionals in relevant fields, such as health care, school and social services.
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| 3. |
- Nygren, Karina, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Norm compliance and self-reported health among Swedish adolescents
- 2011
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. - : SAGE Publications. - 1403-4948 .- 1651-1905. ; 39:1, s. 44-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aims: This study examines the relationship between norm compliance and self-reported health in adolescents, and how this differs between genders. Our specific aim was to investigate if extremely high norm compliance revealed any particular health patterns. Methods: This empirical study used a web-based survey from 2005, which was distributed to all students (n = 5,066) in years 7—9 of compulsory school within six municipalities in northern Sweden. The respondents answered questions about their general health as well as specific health problems such as headaches, stomach ache, sleeping difficulties and stress. Compliance was measured according to different norm-related behaviour, such as truancy, crime and use of tobacco, alcohol and narcotics. Results: The majority of respondents reported good health and norm-compliant behaviour. Girls reported more health problems than boys, a difference that increased with age. Those who were more norm compliant reported better health, fewer somatic complaints and less stress, which goes against our initial hypothesis that extremely high norm compliance and self-reported ill-health are related. There seemed to be a stronger relationship between self-reported health and norm compliance for girls than boys, in absolute terms. Conclusions: The results clearly show a relationship between norm compliance and health, and suggest inequalities between genders.
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| 4. |
- Nygren, Karina, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Parents matter : but relations to parents do not explain gender differences in self-reported health in adolescents
- 2012
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. - : Wiley. - 0283-9318 .- 1471-6712. ; 26:4, s. 643-653
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the study was to explore whether parent-adolescent relations are associated to self-reported health of adolescents. Logistic regression analyses were performed on a cross-sectional data set consisting of 5060 adolescents, grades 7-9, from six municipalities in the northern part of Sweden. The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Umeå, Sweden. Results showed that, in both boys and girls, experiencing low parental demands as well as perceiving the relationship quality and the communication with parents as poor were significantly associated with having poor general health, somatic complaints and feelings of stress. In general, girls scored lower on self-reported health than boys, but our findings indicate that these gender differences could not be explained by relations to parents. In conclusion, relations to parents play an important role for self-reported health of adolescents. Although no causal-effect statements can be determined in this study, it is implied that there is a need for health professionals, such as school nurses, school welfare officers, etc., to pay special attention to parent-adolescent relations in their work with adolescents.
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| 5. |
- Nygren, Karina, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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The Notion of Family in Lithuanian and Swedish Social Legislation
- 2018
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Ingår i: Social Policy and Society. - : Cambridge University Press. - 1474-7464 .- 1475-3073. ; 17:4, s. 651-663
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines the conceptualisation of family in key social legislative documents guiding social workers in two European countries, whose welfare systems have previously been labelled as re-familialised (Lithuania) or de-familialised (Sweden). The focus is on the concept of family as delineated on three legislative levels: the constitutional level, the general family policy level, and the child welfare policy level. ‘Family’ is explicit in Lithuanian law, and the regulation of family formation and responsibility is imperative, while this is much less so in Swedish law. The analysis reveals how general welfare systems (regime-types) are linked to legislative frameworks, which, in turn, provide fundamentally different conditions for social work in different contexts.
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| 6. |
- Nygren, Karina, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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What happens with local survey findings? : a study of how adolescent school surveys are disseminated and utilized in Swedish schools
- 2013
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0031-3831 .- 1470-1170. ; 57:5, s. 526-543
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aimed at examining the barriers to and facilitators of disseminating and utilizing the results of a local Swedish school survey. Interviews with 21 school district managers/principals were performed. Results showed that dissemination and utilization of local survey data appeared as two interrelated processes. With those processes, various barriers and facilitators were mentioned. The barriers and facilitators were not merely the opposites of each other; instead they qualitatively differed from each other depending on what phase in the process the manager/principal referred to. The results also showed that the dissemination phase was both a prerequisite for and interwoven with the utilization phase, e.g. dissemination efforts were important for how the survey results were utilized.
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| 7. |
- Nygren, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Identification of 2,3,7,8-substituted polychlorinated dioxins and dibenzofurans in environmental and human samples
- 1986. - 1
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Ingår i: Chlorinated dioxins and dibenzofurans in perspective. - Boca Raton : CRC Press. - 9781315891545 - 9781351070645 ; , s. 17-34
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) are two series of tricyclic, almost planar aromatic compounds that exhibit very similar physical, chemical, and biological properties. The human exposure to PCDDs and PCDFs by milk consumption is not negligible. Detection levels in ecological and human samples should be orders of magnitude below the usual detection levels obtained in pesticide analyses. One objective of the study is to identify background levels of PCDDs and PCDFs in these samples, especially those of human origin. The spectrum of toxic effects is species dependent but for humans they include chloracne and porphyria cutane tarda and for other animals edema, thymic atrophy, teratogenicity, liver lesions and a slow wasting syndrome followed by death. It is evident that it is of particular importance to identify the ultimate source or sources of the toxic 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDDs and PCDFs found as background constituents in the environmental and human samples, especially the samples of mother's milk, which are of toxicological interest.
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| 8. |
- Addelyan Rasi, Hamideh, 1975-
(författare)
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Empowering Women in the Middle East by Psychosocial Interventions : Can provision of learning spaces in individual and group sessions and teaching of coping strategies improve women’s quality of life?
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: This study set out to construct a conceptual framework that can be used in social work with women in the Middle East and other settings where women have limited access to resources, which, as a result, limits their decision-making capacity. The framework has both an empirical and a theoretical base. The empirical base comprises data from two intervention projects among Iranian women: single mothers and newly married women. The theoretical base is drawn from relevant psychological and social work theories and is harmonized with the empirical data. Psychosocial intervention projects, based on learning spaces for coping strategies, were organized to assess if Iranian women could use a problemsolving model (i.e. focused on cognition and emotion simultaneously) to effectively and independently meet challenges in their own lives and improve their quality of life.Methods: Descriptive qualitative and quasi-experimental quantitative methods were used for data collection and analysis. Forty-four single mothers and newly married women from social welfare services were allocated to nonrandomized intervention and comparison groups. The intervention groups were invited to participate in a 7-month psychosocial intervention; the comparison groups were provided with treatment as usual by the social welfare services. The WHOQOL-BREF instrument was used to measure quality of life, comparing each intervention groups’ scores before and after the intervention and with respective comparison groups. In addition, content analysis and constant comparative analysis were performed on the qualitative data collected from the participants before, during and after the intervention.Results: The results of the quasi-experimental study show significant and large effect sizes among the women exposed to the intervention. Small and not statistically significant effect sizes were observed in the women provided with traditional social welfare services. Accordingly, teaching coping strategies can be a means to improve the quality of life of women in societies where gender discrimination is prevalent. The qualitative findings from the Iranian projects illustrate a process of change —socio-cognitive empowerment— with regard to thinking, feeling and acting among women during and after the intervention. The women developed a number of mental capacities essential to coping and life management. All women used the model effectively, and consequently, made more deliberate decisions to improve their life situations.Conclusion: The practical lessons from the Iranian projects highlight the possibilities of empowering women through fostering mindfulness and deliberate decision making as well as achieving consciousness. This study provides provisional evidence that psychosocial intervention projects, based on learning spaces for coping strategies, can help many clients to achieve their goals and improve their quality of life, and that this psychosocial intervention project can be a useful model for social work practice with women in the Middle East. The conceptual framework can help social workers to bridge the gap between theory and practice: that is, to draw from existing social work theories and, through the psychosocial intervention model, better apply this knowledge in their practical work with women in challenging social environments.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Andersson, Katarina, et al.
(författare)
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Governance, Accountability, and Organizational Development : Eldercare Unit Managers' and Local Politicians' Experiences of and Responses to State Supervision of Swedish Eldercare
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Aging & Social Policy. - : Routledge. - 0895-9420 .- 1545-0821. ; 30:5, s. 419-439
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores how local politicians and care unit managers in Swedish eldercare experience and respond to state supervision. Twelve politicians and 12 managers in 15 previously inspected municipalities were interviewed about their experiences of and reactions to state supervision (SSV) in relation to their views of care quality and routines in eldercare practice. The findings indicate that local managers and political chairs perceived SSV in eldercare positively at a superficial level, but were critical of and disappointed with specific aspects of it: in terms of a) governance—chairs and managers said SSV strengthened implementation of national policies via local actors, but were critical of SSV’s narrow focus on control and flaws in eldercare practice; b) accountability—SSV was seen as limited to accountability for finances and systemic performance; and c) organizational development—SSV was seen as limited to improving routines and compliance with legislation, while local definitions of quality are broader than that. In general, local actors regarded SSV as improving administrative aspects and routines in practice but ignoring the relational content of eldercare quality.
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| 11. |
- Andersson, Katarina, 1963-, et al.
(författare)
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Statlig tillsyn
- 2019
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Ingår i: Perspektiv på granskning inom offentlig sektor. - Malmö : Gleerups Utbildning AB. - 9789151100654 ; , s. 55-70
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 12. |
- Bengtsson, Mattias
(författare)
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Att lämna en placering i samhällsvård : En studie om ungas övergång från samhällsvård till vuxenliv
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The focus in this thesis is young peoples’ (aged 17–20) experiences of leaving out-of-home care (OHC) and making the transition into adulthood. Prior research shows care leavers as a vulnerable group making the transition to adulthood at younger age, in shorter duration and with less support than their peers. The overarching aim is to gain knowledge of how young care leavers experience and handle their transition from OHC to adulthood, and how their experiences and strategies change over time. The study design is longitudinal with three waves of interviews: when still in care (T1), 6–11 months later when most of them had left care (T2) and another 10–19 months later (T3). Article I focuses the informants’ (n=15) expectations for their future and how these are changing over time (T1–T2). The participants’ short term expectations are characterized by worries (T1) and ambivalence (T2) – their long-term expectations are more optimistic (both T1 and T2) and tend to be guided by normative developmental patterns. The aim of article II is to study care leavers’ (n=20) strategies for handling adversities during their OHC transition. The results show that the participants over time (T1–T2) develop externally oriented strategies by navigating towards available resources, and internally oriented reflexive strategies for re-negotiating the meaning of their earlier experiences. Departing from an agency perspective article III focuses care leavers’ (n=14) transitional patterns of leaving care (T1–T3). Three patterns are identified: one stable long-term future oriented, one unstable short-term future oriented and one ambivalent pattern shuttling between long- and short-term future orientations. The aim in article IV is to study occupational trajectories, i.e. care leavers’ (n=14) paths into education and employment from a theoretical framework of agency vs. structure. The results show three ideal types of trajectories where agency is: (1) facilitated by structure, (2) perceived as free from structural constraints, and (3) hindered by structural constraints. The longitudinal design provides an original contribution the field of study by uncovering how care leavers’ expectations for their future is changing during the process of transition, how increasingly successful strategies are developed over time, and how transitional OHC patterns are influenced by the agents’ time horizons as well as by structural forces. A conclusion from the study is that societal support targeting young care leavers is deficient and needs to be developed and strengthened. Furthermore, the transition could be facilitated by extending the duration of the transition process, by including care leavers as active participating agents in the planning process of their passage out from OHC, and by strengthening the maintenance of care leavers’ relationships to supportive members in their formal and informal network. ”Independence” as the ultimate goal for young people leaving OHC is criticized based on the results showing that interdependent relationships to significant others is an integrated part of care leavers’ perception of adult life.
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| 13. |
- Bergström, Gunnar, Professor, et al.
(författare)
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Long-term, non-specific spinal pain: reliable and valid subgroups of patients
- 2001
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Ingår i: Behaviour Research and Therapy. - : Elsevier. - 0005-7967 .- 1873-622X. ; 39:1, s. 75-87
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to identify reliable and valid subgroups of spinal pain patients, using data from the Swedish version of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI-S). A second aim was to test the generalisability of the three patient profiles described in earlier studies on the MPI (”adaptive coper”, ”dysfunctional” and ”interpersonally distressed” patients). The study base consisted of two samples of individuals suffering from long-term, non-specific spinal pain and the results were validated across these samples. Cluster analysis was used to detect distinct groups of patients and the validity of these subgroups was evaluated on variables not used to generate the cluster solution. One subgroup was characterised by lower pain severity, lower interference with everyday activities, lower affective distress and higher life control than the other two subgroups. This patient profile was similar to the MPI adaptive coper patients. A second subgroup resembled the dysfunctional patient profile, thus displaying a worse adjustment to chronic pain than the AC patients. The third patient group reported significantly lower levels of social support from “significant others” than the other subgroups. This patient profile was similar to that of the interpersonally distressed patient group. Taken together, the results support the reliability, validity and generalisability of three subgroups of chronic pain patients derived from the MPI-S.
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| 14. |
- Bergström, Gunnar, Professor, et al.
(författare)
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The impact of psychologically different patient groups on outcome after a vocational rehabilitation program for long-term spinal pain patients
- 2001
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Ingår i: Pain. - : LWW. - 0304-3959 .- 1872-6623. ; 93:3, s. 229-237
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A better knowledge of differential treatment outcomes for subgroups of chronic spinal pain patients may, for instance, help clinicians in treatment planning or pain researchers in treatment outcome research. The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate the predictive validity of a subgroup classification based on the Swedish version of the (West Haven Yale) Multidimensional Pain Inventory, the MPI-S. Patients referred to a vocational rehabilitation program were classified into one of three groups, labeled ‘adaptive copers’, ‘dysfunctional’ patients, and ‘interpersonally distressed’ patients, and followed over an 18-month follow-up period. The outcome variables were absence from work (defined as sick listing plus early retirement), general health status, and utilization of health care resources. To our knowledge, the predictive validity of the MPI subgroups has not been evaluated regarding sick listing and early retirement after rehabilitation. As hypothesized, the results showed that the ‘dysfunctional’ patient group had significantly more registered absences from work and reported higher utilization of health care, over the follow-up period compared to the ‘adaptive copers’. Furthermore, as hypothesized, the ‘interpersonally distressed’ and ‘dysfunctional’ patient groups report a poorer general health status than the ‘adaptive copers’ over the whole follow-up period. However, contrary to our hypothesis, the proportion of improved patients did not differ significantly between the subgroups. Altogether, the predictive validity of the MPI-S subgroup classification was mainly confirmed. The clinical implications of this study suggest that the matching of treatment to patient needs may enhance treatment outcome, reduce pain and suffering among chronic spinal pain patients and facilitate a better health economic allocation of treatment resources.
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| 15. |
- Blom, Björn, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Analys av korta narrativ
- 2021. - 2
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Ingår i: Att forska i socialt arbete. - Lund : Studentlitteratur AB. - 9789144131603 ; , s. 165-197
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 16. |
- Blom, Björn, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Analysing written narratives : considerations on the ‘code-totality problems’
- 2010
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Social Research. - Lillehammer : The Centre for Public Policy Innovation, Lillehammer University College (HiL). - 1892-2783. ; 1:1, s. 1-20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article describes and discusses a number of fundamental aspects of analysing short written narratives. Of particular interest are the code-totality problems that arise during the transformation of several individual stories into a collective narrative. This article starts with a brief introduction to our previous narrative research on Swedish social-work students, which is followed by a description of textual interpretation according to Paul Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation, and a discussion and elaboration on the different concepts of meaning within his theory. The core of this article is an account of four models for analysing narrative data from several informants. This is followed by a concrete example of the implications that follow from the implementation of these models. We conclude that the degree of heterogeneity in the narrative material affects the choice of the mode of textual analysis and the code compilation.
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
- Blom, Björn, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Inledning : Utvärdering i socialt arbete
- 2011. - 1
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Ingår i: Utvärdering i socialt arbete. - Stockholm : Natur & Kultur. - 9789127119826 ; , s. 17-33
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 19. |
- Blom, Björn, et al.
(författare)
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Korta narrativer
- 2008
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Ingår i: Att forska i socialt arbete. - : Studentlitteratur, Lund. - 9789144004624
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Blom, Björn, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Olikheter och beröringspunkter
- 2013. - 2
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Ingår i: Kunskap i socialt arbete. - Stockholm : Natur och kultur. - 9789127134065 ; , s. 176-179
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 22. |
- Blom, Björn, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Perspektiv och utvecklingslinjer
- 2013. - 2
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Ingår i: Kunskap i socialt arbete. - Stockholm : Natur och kultur. - 9789127134065 ; , s. 79-82
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
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| 26. |
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| 27. |
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| 28. |
- Blomberg, Barbro, 1946-
(författare)
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Inklusion en illusion? : Om delaktighet i samhället för vuxna personer med utvecklingsstörning
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The background to this thesis lies in the great changes that have occurred in the disability field during the last threes decades. The purpose of this thesis is to describe, analyze and try to understand how these changes impact on life conditions for adult persons with mild intellectual disabilities. The main focus in this study is to listen to the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities themselves. The questions addressed in the study are; how do people with intellectual disabilities experience participation, citizen-ship, social exclusion and social inclusion in society? Where are their daily arenas and what characterizes those arenas in terms of citizenship, exclusion and inclusion? What type of experiences do they have from encountering people in the community, from encountering the organisations and staff that provide support and service and from the consequences of disability policies in practise? How do staff close to them work to reach the goals of participation? What role can professionals play in supporting participation? Which possibilities and barriers do the staff experience?Empirical data for the study has been gathered by qualitative methods, mainly participant observations and interviews but also from document analysis of local authority documents, official guidelines, laws and national and international disability policy documents.The theoretical framework is based on theories about citizenship and participation. Social exclusion and social inclusion are the sensitizing concepts in this study. For the interpretation and analysis theories about citizenship, participation and categorization were used.In the light of the empirical findings the results of the study show that three main themes were promi-nent. The first theme concerned the daily arenas, were there were both excluded arenas and included are-nas with various forms of interaction with the society. The arenas for support and service in housing and daily activities are described as excluded arenas with mainly internal social interaction. On the other hand the new arenas such as daily activity centres, located in the community, such as cafés, shops run by peo-ple with intellectual disabilities together with staff had frequent interaction with other people in the soci-ety. The second theme concerned the content in the encounters between respondents with intellectual disabilities and different actors in the community. The informants had both positive and negative experi-ences of these encounters. The encounter with the disability policy was, according to this dissertation, that the user informants hade many experiences of lacking social citizenship but also that they experienced structural inclusion when politicians listen to them and answered their questions. The third theme con-cerned how the staff works to reach the goals of participation where both possibilities and barriers exist on structural and individual levels. This study illustrates the user informants’ many experiences of citi-zenship and social exclusion but also examples of social inclusion.In the concluding chapter the results are discussed and analyzed in relation to the theoretical frame-work, where the concept of categorisation was very important. Finally, the description of the process clearly illustrates the difficulties for disability service organisations to develop support and services that are adapted to the actual disability policy. The results shed light on the gap between theory and practise.Some of the most positive changes towards inclusion in society for people with intellectual disabilities come from services run by users and staff close to them. Final conclusions and reflections of the results in the study are that support and service also can be discussed in terms of universalism in order to reduce the process of categorisation.
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| 29. |
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| 30. |
- Coe, Anna-Britt, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Youth politics as multiple processes : how teenagers construct political action in Sweden
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Youth Studies. - : Routledge. - 1367-6261 .- 1469-9680. ; 19:10, s. 1321-1337
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Alternative approaches to power in youth politics are needed to overcome the conceptual dichotomy between youth political action that is either linked to – or delinked from – state institutions. This paper offers an alternative drawn from a study that sought to empirically explore, and build theory upon, how teenagers construct their political action. Our qualitative study among 10 activists aged between 17 and 19 in a medium-size city in Northern Sweden found that youth constructed their political action as four different processes: moving from consciousness to action, moving from personal experience to shared goals, moving from social activities to political activities, and moving from single to multiple arenas. We integrated these processes in the concept Youth Politics as Multiple Processes. Youth efforts to bring about these processes were not always fruitful because, as their political action gained complexity, youth faced greater constraints for recognizing, addressing and challenging power from age-based exclusion, state-centered definitions of politics, and adult disinterest in youth demands. According to our findings, youth constructed political action based in an approach to power that was not state-centered. We linked our findings to youth politics research and social movement theory that similarly proposed alternative approaches to power.
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| 31. |
- Du, Yaqiong, et al.
(författare)
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Interventions of Chinese nonprofit charitable organizations in the rescue of children in difficulty
- 2018
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - : MDPI. - 2076-0760. ; 7:97, s. 1-13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In June 2016, China promulgated the “Opinions of the State Council on Strengthening the Work of Rescuing Children in Difficulty”, which broadened the coverage of child welfare in China. The document clearly encourages and supports the participation of nonprofit charitable organizations in improving and complementing the public support system for children living in difficulty. This paper reports an assessment study of the relief program for children with congenital heart disease, which was launched by the Red Cross in L Province. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews with six Red Cross employees and 10 parents of stricken families, and telephone interviews with 66 recipient families, were carried out. Additionally, a review of a large number of background documents was analyzed to assess interventions by social organizations in the rescue of children in difficulty. The project was shown to reduce poverty and improve medical treatment for children with congenital heart disease. The role of nonprofit charitable organizations in relation to the child protection system can be characterized as “leak-filling”.
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| 32. |
- Edholm, Håkan, et al.
(författare)
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Socialbidragstagandet i Umeå - ofärd i välfärden
- 2004
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Ingår i: Kris eller utveckling?. - : Inst för socialt arbete, Umeå universitet och Umeå socialtjänst, UFFE. ; , s. 94-109
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 33. |
- Ekholm, David
(författare)
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Sport as a Means of Responding to Social Problems : Rationales of Government, Welfare and Social Change
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sport has been increasingly recognized in social policy as a means of steering social change and as a method for responding to diverse social problems. The present study examines how rationales of social change are formed through ‘sport as a means of responding to social problems’. Four research questions are posed: (1) How is it that sport can be thought of and articulated as a means of responding to social problems? (2) How are sport practices assumed to operate as a means of responding to social problems? (3) How are social problems represented when sport is promoted as a means of response? (4) What conduct, subjectivity and citizen competences are shaped within this regime of practice? The study focuses on the government of subjects’ conduct, the formation of community and delineation of domains subjected to social change. The gradual shifts in the governmental rationality of the Swedish welfare state provide a framework for the study. Two kinds of empirical material are investigated. Initially, scientific knowledge is analysed; after this, a sport-based intervention, conducted in cooperation between a social entrepreneur, municipality and local sport clubs, is examined. In relation to scientific discourse, research on sport for social objectives would benefit from more theoretically driven constructionist perspectives related to welfare state transformations. In scientific discourse, rationales of social change in sport are conceived of as individual attainment of skills, competences and powers that are presumably transferable to other social spheres. Such discourse represents problems as individual problems. With respect to the sport-based intervention, individual change is promoted by representatives of the social entrepreneur in terms of providing subjects with motivational powers, which are shaped by role models and applied in “choosing the right track”. By representing problems as risks, avoidance is formed as an individual opportunity. This positions subjects as being responsible for their own welfare and inclusion. Municipal policy makers view the intervention as a way to form community and social cohesion in response to tensions in society. They present sport (and the social entrepreneur) as a way to mobilize and activate civil society – which is associated with the potency of voluntarism, authentic leadership and personal relations based on common identity. Consequently, responsibility for responding to social problems is spread and elements of de-professionalized social work are imposed. To conclude, sport is conceptualized as a means of responding to social problems because sport practices are associated with individual agency and with an active civil society and moral community. The technologies and rationality of social change point out ‘the self’, ‘the community’ and ‘the place’ as locations where social change is possible, rather than the whole of society. For instance, the technologies of social change are based on activation and responsibilization of ‘the self’ and of ‘the community’. These rationales of social change are based on a critique of welfarist governmentality and of the idea of governing from ‘the social’ point of view. Arguably, such discourse obscures more profound social reform. The study provides some empirical explorations illustrating how a range of tendencies and mutations in the governmental rationality of the welfare state and of social work are manifested in ‘sport as a means of responding to social problems’.
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| 34. |
- Enell, Sofia
(författare)
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Transit i samhällsvården : När unga utreds på särskilda ungdomshem
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about assessments of young people in secure accommodations. Institutional assessments relate to the paradox in child welfare of combining control and care. The procedure raises questions about their implications for young people, their caseworkers and evolving care trajectories. Although institutional assessments of young people have a historical heritage, research about their implications is lacking. The aim of the thesis is to explore young people’s and their caseworkers’ experiences of assessments in secure accommodations and their implications for young people’s care trajectories. Methods used are primarily repeated interviews with 16 young people during a period of two years and one interview with their caseworkers. Surveys about 85 youths, participatory observations and written assessments are also included. This thesis takes an interactionist approach and the material has been analysed with the main concept of care trajectory along with the concepts of self-presentation, total institution, institutional identity and texts as coordinators.The results are presented in four papers. The concluding analysis shows that assessments in secure accommodations can be divided into three elements: the practice, the text and the placement. These three elements have different implications for the young people and the caseworkers. For the young people the practice and the placement converge into an assessment universe that, with the text, intensifies their shaping of self-identity. The young people’s experiences are characterised by lack of control over their self-presentations, the present and the future. For the caseworkers, the practice has implications for their understanding of the young people’s individual troubles, the text for negotiating with other actors and the placement in their efforts to achieve change in the young people’s troublesome situations. The assessments’ implications for stability and foreseeability in the young people’s further care trajectories are limited. Moreover, the procedure of assessing young people in itself contains instability through involving several professionals in different parts of the assessment and decision-making process. Despite lack of stability, the thesis reveals that some young people experience the assessment as a place for self-development and where the course of the care trajectory changes to the better.
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| 35. |
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| 36. |
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| 37. |
- Forsberg, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Self-help groups for women with pain : A research review with a gender perspective
- 2005
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Ingår i: International Journal of Self Help & Self Care. - : Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.. - 1091-2851 .- 1541-4450. ; 3:1/2, s. 133-148
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is the aim of this review to provide a survey of research on Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in health care with a special focus on SHGs for women with chronic muscular pain. The aim is not only to describe this field of research, but also to consider how this research relates to gender research as such. A variety of themes are examined: history, external factors that influence SHGs, internal aspects of SHGs, and gender research on SHGs. It was found that the gender perspective was relatively neglected. Our suggestion for further research notes that group members can produce new ways to manage their lives with the help of the interaction/exchange in the SHGs, regarding gender construction, knowledge, legitimacy and adaptation or transformation, and the position of activities in SHGs among societal norms and attitudes.
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| 38. |
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| 39. |
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| 40. |
- Forsberg, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Självhjälpsgrupper för personer med smärta : En nationell kartläggning
- 2009
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Ingår i: Socionomen, Forskningssupplement. - Stockholm : Sveriges socionomers, personal- & förvaltningstjänstemäns riksförbund (SSR). - 0283-1929. ; :3, Forskningssupplement 25, s. 66-75
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Artikeln redovisar en kartläggning av självhjälpsgrupper i Sverige för personer med smärta. Kartläggningen visar att när självhjälpsgrupperna organiseras inom frivilliga organisationer och/eller studieförbund finns en högre andel självstyrda grupper och grupper med cirkelledare, de uppges oftare bestå av enbart kvinnor samt att gruppernas namn anger mer tydligt att de inriktar sig på smärta än när verksamheten organiseras offentligt. Det mest slående resultatet är att självhjälpsgrupper framför allt samlar kvinnor som deltagare, ovasett huvudman.
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| 41. |
- Forsgärde, Marianne, et al.
(författare)
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Ethical discussion groups as an intervention to improve the climate in interprofessional work with the elder-ly and disabled
- 2000
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Ingår i: Journal of Interprofessional Care. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1356-1820 .- 1469-9567. ; 14:4, s. 351-361
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Due to social policy reforms in Sweden, professionals with a social and a medical education work together. Reported conflicts within municipal elderly and disabled care, related to professional training, sometimes result in a deteriorated work climate. As an attempt to improve the work climate in interprofessional groups, an intervention study was set up in four 'experimental dwellings' where staff participated in systematic ethical group discussions. Four similar dwellings were used as reference. Work climate was studied before and after the intervention using a questionnaire measuring sense of coherence, job satisfaction, and burnout among the staff. High scores at baseline with no significant differences after the intervention. That staff had high coping capacity, were satisfied and did not experience burnout. The small observed changes after intervention indicate that the intervention did not lead to the expected improvement of work climate, but might also result from the chosen scales inability to measure complex social processes. The importance of interprofessional discussions about everyday skills and values is stressed.
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| 42. |
- Fylkesnes, Marte K, et al.
(författare)
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Frykten for barnevernet : En undersøkelse av etniske minoritetsforeldres oppfatninger
- 2015
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Ingår i: Norges Barnevern. - : Universitetsforlaget. - 0800-1014 .- 1891-1838. ; 92:2, s. 80-96
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As part of a larger research project, we interviewed ten parents with refugee backgrounds about their experiences of contact with child welfare services in Norway. Despite parents describing both positive and negative experiences, and trust as well as distrust, we found that fear of the child welfare services was a central theme. Thematic analyses showed that fear of the child welfare services was not primarily related to the interviewees' own negative experiences, but to a variety of perceptions or representations of the child welfare services that informants described as common or prevalent among people from ethnic minorities in general. We found that the representations of the child welfare services could be categorized into the following themes: 1) child welfare services primarily take children away from parents, 2) child welfare services do not go into dialogue with parents, and 3) child welfare services discriminate against ethnic minority families. The analysis is discussed critically in light of Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser's understandings of recognition and social justice. We suggest that the parents’ fear of the child welfare services can be understood as fear of experiencing humiliation and disrespect through contact with child welfare services; fear of losing their children, becoming invisible and being discriminated against. A key implication of the study is the need for further research that examines the fear of child welfare among people from ethnic minorities, as well as measures that address distrust of services in parts of the population.
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| 43. |
- Fylkesnes, Marte Knag, et al.
(författare)
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Negotiating deficiency : exploring ethnic minority parents' narratives about encountering child welfare services in Norway
- 2018
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Ingår i: Child & Family Social Work. - Hoboken : Wiley-Blackwell. - 1356-7500 .- 1365-2206. ; 23:2, s. 196-203
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Evaluating the participatory opportunities for service users within social welfare institutions is a pressing issue. In this article, we explore a group of ethnic minority parents' experiences with child welfare services (CWS) in Norway. A strong narrative theme was deficiency positioning—how lacking a Norwegian normative set of knowledge and skills challenged the parents' opportunities to participate. We analysed how deficiency positioning was perceived, negotiated, and contested in the parents' accounts, and 4 themes emerged: (a) learning to parent, (b) contesting expert knowledge, (c) learning to be a client, and (d) constructing CWS deficiency. Nancy Fraser's concept of “participatory parity” was applied to explore how current institutional structures may enable and limit parents' participation. The analysis provides insight into agencies and informants' sense-making processes as well as the diverse resources and strategies that parents draw upon in the CWS encounter. Furthermore, we argue that an interplay between a strong focus on “parenting skills” and bureaucratic and economic structures positions ethnic minority parents as deficient, thus providing powerful mechanisms for marginalization. Implications for case work and institutional levels are discussed.
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| 44. |
- Gretarsson, Sigurdur, et al.
(författare)
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Substantial intrinsic variability in chemoradiosensitivity of newly established anaplastic thyroid cancer cell-lines
- 2020
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Ingår i: Acta Oto-Laryngologica. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1651-2251 .- 0001-6489. ; 140:4, s. 337-343
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Well characterized human cell lines are needed for preclinical treatment studies of anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC).Aims/Objectives: The aim was to establish, verify and characterize a panel of ATC cell lines.Material and methods: Cell lines were established from ATC fine-needle aspiration biopsies and characterized genetically and functionally regarding treatment sensitivities.Results: Eight cell lines were established in vitro and the anaplastic thyroid origin was verified. Seven of the cell lines were also grown as xenografts. The cell lines harboured complex karyotypes with modal numbers in hyperdiploid to near-pentaploid range. Five were TP53 mutated and three carried the BRAFV600E mutation. None had rearrangements of RET. For doxorubicin, IC50 ranged from 0.42 to 46 nmol/L and for paclitaxel from 1.6 to 196 nmol/L. Radiation sensitivity varied between 2.6 and 6.3 Gy. Two of the BRAF mutated cell lines displayed high sensitivity to vemurafenib, while the third was similar to the wild-type ones.Conclusions and significance: We describe a series of new ATC cell lines demonstrating large heterogeneity in the response to cytostatic drugs and the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib. The observations are relevant to future attempts to optimize treatment combinations for ATC.
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| 45. |
- Gümüscü, Ahmet, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Bringing the Family Back in : On Role Assignment and Clientification in the Swedish Social Services
- 2015
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - Basel : MDPI AG. - 2076-0760. ; 4:1, s. 117-133
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden, municipal social services provide help and support for vulnerable people with a variety of needs. Although the family has long been understood to be a focus of social work interventions, it is unclear how it is brought into the casework process in the highly individualised and specialised municipal social services. Therefore, in this study we investigated processes of client-making and role assignment in five service sectors: social assistance, child welfare, substance abuse, disability, and elderly care. We carried out focus group interviews with social workers in each of these sectors in a mid-sized community in central Sweden. Findings showed that clienthood and the family are interpreted in different ways. The family is brought into or kept out of service provisions in ways that are connected to social workers’ construction of the family either as expert, client or non-client. However, the role of the family may also change during the casework process. Findings are examined in relation to theories of the welfare state and implications for family-focused practice are discussed.
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| 46. |
- Gümüscü, Ahmet, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Family as Raw Material – the Deconstructed Family in the Swedish Social Services
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - Bodö. - 0809-9936. ; :2, s. 1-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article focuses on how families are defined and conceptualized by social workers in the Swedish social services. Using a qualitative study design, we carried out telephone interviews with 60 social workers in five major sectors of the social services in two smaller and two larger municipalities. These sectors included elderly care, disability, child welfare, addiction and economic support, with a qualitative content analysis approach used to analyze the data.The results showed that the practices in social service organizations are both individualized and specialized. Social workers primarily focus on the individual as the client when deciding upon interventions, and when asked about how they regard, define and delimit the family in their work, our analysis revealed that different mediating mechanisms were engaged in what can be seen as a deconstruction of the family. These mechanisms included legislation (as a control mechanism), household composition (boundary mechanism) and service needs (professional mechanism), which were used in various ways and to differing degrees within each sector. The resultant five unique and sector-specific conceptualizations of families are implicated in how interventions are constructed and work processes targeted at individuals and families.
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| 47. |
- Gümüscü, Ahmet, et al.
(författare)
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Social work and the management of complexity in Swedish child welfare services
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nordic Social Work Research. - : Routledge. - 2156-857X .- 2156-8588. ; 10:3, s. 257-269
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper elucidates how Swedish child welfare social workers manage complexity co-occuring in the families with which they work and the organisational contexts of practice. Focus groups were held with social workers in three municipalities in Sweden who described work processes generally and in response to a fictitious vignette. The vignette was constructed as a complex family situation to explore how social workers approach complexity when faced with a family with complex needs. Findings showed that social workers are challenged in their everyday work where they are aware of the many needs in a family. They focus on immediate conditions for children while recognising that some problems are less amenable to being solved. However they try to manage complexities related to families as well as the structural conditions of work by sorting, prioritising and oscillating between a child focus and a family service orientation. This paper serves as a necessary reminder of the complexity of social work in the broader area of child welfare and raises further questions about the use of comparative typologies to explain social work practices
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| 48. |
- Gümüscü, Ahmet, 1981-
(författare)
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Socialtjänsten och familjen : socialarbetares konstruktion av familj och insatser i familjerelaterad komplexitet
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to describe and analyse how social workers in Swedish social services define “family” and handle complexity when they work with families, and especially “families with complex needs” as the target of their interventions. Whereas families with complex needs can be understood to involve one or more family members having two or more simultaneously occurring needs or problems (e.g. mental health issues, addiction, financial problems, dysfunctionality, child abuse, ageing, disabilities, and family violence), complexity in social work extends beyond that which exists in families. Therefore, to broaden our understanding of these complexities in social work, this research sought answers to the following questions:• How do social workers define and set boundaries around the concept of “family” when they target their interventions? How do these definitions differ between different sectors of the social services – elderly care, disability care, addiction, child welfare, and financial assistance? (study I)• How do social workers involve families and family members in the casework from intake and through the investigation process within different social service sectors? What happens to the conceptualisation of family through an investigation process? (study II)• How do social workers in child welfare services describe and manage complexity in their work generally and when they work with families with complex needs? (study III)• How then do social workers in different service sectors conceive of and manage complexities in their everyday work, especially when it comes to families with complex needs? (study IV)The empirical material in studies I and IV consists of telephone interviews with 60 social workers working in five different sectors in four municipalities. Study II is based on five focus group interviews with social workers working in five different sectors in one larger municipality. Study III is based on focus groups with vignettes with social workers working in child welfare in three municipalities.In the first study findings revealed that different mediating mechanisms were adopted by social workers in what can be understood to be a deconstruction of the family. These mechanisms included legislation (as a control mechanism), household composition (boundary mechanism) and service needs (professional mechanism), which were used in various ways and to differing degrees within each sector. The five unique and sector-specific conceptualisations of families are implicated in how interventions are constructed and work processes targeted at individuals and families.In the second study findings showed that clienthood and family are interpreted in different ways. The family was brought into or kept out of service provisions in ways that were connected to social workers’ construction of the family either as expert, client or non-client. How social workers understood the role of the family changed during the casework process. In the third study, findings showed that social workers were challenged in their everyday work where they focused on immediate conditions for children while avoiding problems that were less amenable to being solved. Social workers tried to manage complexities related to families by either sorting prioritizing or oscillating between different child welfare orientations. In the fourth study, findings showed that there were different types of reported complex needs: deeprooted needs and broad-based needs. Complex family needs were transformed into complex cases by social workers, based on considerations of family composition, relationships between clients and social workers, and organizational contexts of practice. The boundaries between these three domains were not distinct, and the interconnectivity and complexities occurring in and between them contributed to the production of much of the “wickedness” that exists in social work practice.A main conclusion is that the concept of family is understood and targeted differently in different sectors of social work. In some cases, the use of the family concept can be related to the clients' specific needs. Families who social workers meet often have combinations of needs and problems that result in numerous interventions from the social services. When social workers meet these families, they can feel ambiguity and uncertainty because of the complexity of the needs or other complexities. And, in individualised social services, a narrow focus on the needs of individuals can make it difficult to see the situation of the family as a whole. This research highlights the importance of bringing this web of complexities to the forefront of practice.
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| 49. |
- Hamreby, Kerstin, 1950-
(författare)
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Flickor och pojkar i den sociala barnavården : Föreställningar om kön och sociala problem under 1900-talet
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The topic of this study is girls and boys in the field of child welfare. The aim has been to trace and describe conceptions of gender, delinquency and social problems in child welfare from the end of the nineteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century. The sources of data in the study consist of legislative documents, journals and other historical literature representing the professional discourse. Two analytical approaches have been used. First, the sources were employed for descriptions of legislation and the legislative processes in child welfare. Second, the material was analyzed with a discursive approach to elucidate conceptions of gender and their importance in the legislative process and thus in the construction of social problems. Three main periods with different currants of ideas have been identified. In the first period moralism dominated. Thoughts about social problems were based in normative assumptions and scientific influences were rare. Child welfare legislation was deeply influenced by ideas of social control. Young people were to be controlled and disciplined especially through work: Girls through household work and care and boys through paid work. In the second period hygienism, ideas based in hygiene discourses, were the main trend. Genetically based arguments together with discussions about morality and poverty were used to explain social problems, and scientific methods were to be used to discipline and control young people. Proposals for measures take against social problems corresponded to two main lines, a hygienic-medical line and a social pedagogic line. The hygienic-medical line had a considerable influence on actions taken to prevent and deal with social problems. One example was the compulsory care and sterilization of certain young women to prevent them from reproducing. The social pedagogic line comprised parents’ education, the role of the family and sexual education. An increased use of psychological explanations for experiences and behaviour among individuals and groups was seen in the 1930’s; this marked the beginning of the third period, psychologism. During the period of psychologism, science, mainly represented by psychology and psychiatry, gradually achieved a greater impact in those processes where young people were categorized as social problems. If in the previous period external discipline was the means of control, in this period internalized self-discipline was to be the means of adjustment. The study showed that conceptions of girls and boys in child welfare were gendered throughout the first half of the twentieth century. This bias has had an impact on how girls and boys were treated in child welfare services. Discussions about social problems concerning girls were often about sexuality and sexual actions, and discussions concerning boys were about violence and criminality. Social problems among girls were seen above all as moral transgressions and social problems among boys as juridical transgressions. These differing conceptions are of great importance when considering how girls and boys were judged and treated according to the child welfare Acts in existence during the first part of the twentieth century.
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| 50. |
- Hanberger, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Audit and Accountability
- 2017
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Ingår i: Blom, B., Evertsson, L. & Perlinski, M. (Eds.) Social and Caring Professions in European Welfare States.. - Bristol, UK. : Policy Press. - 9781447327196
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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