| 1. |
- 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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| 2. |
- Nasseh Lotf Abadi, Mozhdeh, 1977-
(författare)
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Social support, coping, and self-esteem in relation to psychosocial factors : A study of health issues and birth weight in young mothers in Tehran, Iran
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: Generally, pregnancy is considered to be a positive period in life in Iranian culture. For the parents, it is important to have a healthy pregnancy and, as a result, a healthy child. A sufficient birth weight of the infant represents one of the crucial conditions of a healthy development of a child during infancy as well as later in life. Ongoing research has been carried out regarding various medical factors related to birth weight, but there is a gap in knowledge about psychosocial factors such as social support, coping, self-esteem, stress and mother’s mental health, and various socio-demographic factors including domestic violence, which may lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as low birth weight. This thesis aims to provide knowledge to fill this gap.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Tehran, Iran, including 600 young mothers who had delivered in Akbarabadi hospital, one of the main gynaecological hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The investigation included a self-developed socio-demographic form, the Social Support Questionnaire, the Ways of Coping Checklist, Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale, the General Health Questionnaire-12, and a Life Event Checklist.Results: We could not find a significant association between birth weight and mother’s level of education, and there was no substantial relationship between general mental health and birth weight. Verbal abuse was reported by 26.0% of the young mothers, 4.8% reported physical abuse, 5.5% reported sexual abuse, and 1.3% reported all three types of abuse. The abuse-index was significantly negatively associated with satisfaction with social support and with self-esteem.The higher the abuse-index, by trend, the lower was the infants’ birth weight. Weight before pregnancy, current weight, weight gain during pregnancy, and the number of prenatal care visits were significantly positively associated with the weight of the newborn. Mothers who reported having a history of a low birth-weight (LBW) child or were physically abused during pregnancy had infants with significant lower birth weight.The more the pregnant women were satisfied with their social support and the more often they used positive reappraisal as a way of coping, the higher was their infants’ birth weight. The higher the self-esteem, the less often they used escape avoidance and confrontive coping.Conclusion: The results suggest the importance of relationships between a healthy pregnancy and psychosocial as well as socio-demographic factors. Providing pregnant women with social support is a key component for a healthy pregnancy, especially when faced with stressful situations. The number of people available for support did not provide a significant buffering effect on domestic violence (DV), but the perceived quality of social support did. Higher education in the mother and husband, and women’s employment represented protective conditions against the occurrence of DV. Women who reported physical abuse during pregnancy had infants with lower birth weight. Satisfaction with social support and use of positive reappraisal were significantly associated with higher birth weight.
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| 3. |
- 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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| 4. |
- 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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| 5. |
- 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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| 6. |
- 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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| 7. |
- Levidioti-Lekkou, Spyridoula, 1945-
(författare)
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Adolescents' voices : mental health, self-esteem, sense of coherence, family functioning and life attitudes in Swedish and Greek adolescents
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Several factors have been identified as related to mental health in adolescence, such as competences, behavioural/emotional problems, self-esteem, and sense of coherence. Studies also emphasise the importance of family functioning and cultural factors.Objectives: This study investigates and compares the mental health of adolescents in relation to family functioning and socio-cultural variables in Sweden and Greece. Furthermore, Swedish and Greek adolescents' attitudes about life issues are studied. For Greek youths, mental health and gender variations in attitudes were studied as well.Populations and Methods: The study included 583 Swedish and 238 Greek school-aged adolescents aged 13 through 18 years. The Swedish sample was recruited from students at a Junior High and a High School in the town of Lycksele close to the University town of Umeå and the Greek sample was selected from three High schools and three Lyceums in Patras. The two samples were selected to represent the socio-demographic strata in the study areas.Achenbach's Youth Self Report (YSR), Rosenberg's Self-Esteem, Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence (SOC), and Beavers (SFI) scales were used. Out of the large sample, adolescents who reported either high or low on Achenbach's Youth Self Report–47 Greeks and 47 Swedes–were selected for semi-structured interviews.An interview guide with semi-structured questions was created to gather information about life attitudes. The questions addressed a broad spectrum of everyday life issues to understand how youths orient themselves to life–the central themes of an adolescent life and the basic codes of behaviour related to mental health, family, and culture.Results and discussion: Results revealed significant differences and some simi-larities between Swedish and Greek adolescents. According to YSR, the Swedish adolescents had fewer mental health problems than the Greek adolescents. Although this difference was most evident for internalized problems, it was also evident for externalized problems. These differences were seen for both sexes in most problem areas identified by YSR. In both countries, girls had higher prob-lem scores than boys. Age group comparisons followed the same national differences mostly obvious for the two oldest age groups. As for sense of coherence, all of the Greek groups had higher scores. For self-esteem, no differences were found in the comparison between total group scoring, but Greek girls and Swedish boys had better self-esteem compared to their counterparts. Greek adolescents scored their families higher on family health competence.With respect to attitudes about life issues, Greek youths reported more problems related to self, more fears of social dangers, losses, and illness. In addition, they turned more often to their family for support during difficult times. More Greek youths believed in God than their Swedish counterparts. The two groups identified similar family problems. The Swedes reported more fear about their future and tended to trust public authorities more during times of difficulty. Greek adolescents revealed social concerns, fears about the future and social dangers, and using own coping and family support to face these issues. Mental-health and gender patterns influenced some attitudes. Greek adolescents' attitudes about education, and messages sent to their parents are also presented. Both groups' attitudes about faith and homosexuality are shown.They both emphasised the importance of social and career position. Swedes, however, more often expressed a desire to have a family within five years. We recommend that counselling be offered in schools to provide students with life skills and to improve communication with their parents. This support should help parents and children face relational and behavioural issues of children. In addition, we recommend educational support be provided to Greek youths.
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| 8. |
- 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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| 9. |
- 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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| 10. |
- 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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| 11. |
- Padyab, Mojgan, 1976-
(författare)
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Client violence toward Iranian social workers : A national study
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction Client violence toward social workers has become recognized as a common problem, and major concern has been raised with regard to its impacts on the workers’ practice, and physical and psychological health. More than half a century has passed since the social work profession was established in Iran, and yet client violence and the associated health-related consequences remain unexplored. This thesis aims to address this gap in knowledge. Methods A national survey was conducted involving 390 social workers from the Centres for Socially Injured People (CSIP), affiliated to the Social Affairs Department of the State Welfare Organization, Iran. The survey included self-administered questionnaires, namely, the Workplace Violence in the Health Sector questionnaire, the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), the Ways of Coping questionnaire, the Burnout Measure, and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. Results A high proportion of CSIP social workers (67%) have experienced violence. Psychological violence was about three times more common than physical violence. A high tendency of not reporting psychological violence to managers/supervisors was found. Psychological violence was associated with poorer mental health. Social workers with experience of psychological violence were found to be more worried about occurrences of violent events. Worrying about violence was significantly correlated with poorer mental health. Active coping had a direct effect on health, suggesting a poorer health status with more frequent use of active coping. Burnout was experienced by 10.9% of social workers, and 17.4% were found to be at risk of developing burnout symptoms. Low self-esteem and experience of violence were associated with burnout. Conclusion The results suggest the importance of not neglecting cases of client violence and of putting the health and safety of social workers on top of the agenda. A victimized social worker with limited resources at work needs to note that coping skills may reduce the impact of stressors, not only by changing the stressors themselves, but also by changing how the social worker responds to them.
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| 12. |
- Ratsika, Nikoleta, 1958-
(författare)
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Between tradition and modernity : The occupational choices of young people in rural Crete
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to investigate the occupational orientations and choices of young people in rural Crete, a society, which is in constant change as it finds itself caught between tradition and modernity. To achieve this, the study looks into two cases: the case of Anogia, a small mountainous cattle-raising village, and the case of Archanes, which is a farming village on a plain. Both communities are undergoing a process of change due to the influence exerted upon them through the frequent contacts with the ‘outside world’ and the diffusion of modernity in all areas of life. The study expects to shed light on how the young people of these villages experience the transition from tradition to modernity and how this transition influences their choice of occupation. More specifically, the aims of this study are to investigate: A. The occupational orientations and choice of occupation of the young people within the communities of Anogia and Archanes. B. The main contextual factors that contribute to the young people’s occupational orientations and choice of occupation in Anogia and Archanes. The overall approach is a qualitative inquiry consisting of two case studies. The empirical research took place in the field of the communities of Anogia and Archanes, and addresses 29 young people of the villages, so as to gather primary data through semistructured interviews. The age has been defined to be 16 to 25 years old. In order to arrive at the findings, data analysis derived from the Grounded Theory methodological approach was employed (Strauss, 1987). The main findings of the study show that the transitional process from school to work seems to be the most crucial issue for the young people under study, in the process of shaping their occupational orientations and choices. The attitude, either positive or negative, that each one has adopted towards school and education generally and the level of education constitutes the main tool that determines the limitations and the opportunities for job placement. In these small societies, the traditional roles have been overturned as regards the youth and their professional orientations. The majority of young people follow new practices in seeking employment. These characterise the following three types of youth: the stayers, the ambivalent and the leavers.
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| 13. |
- Rostami, Arian, 1973-
(författare)
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Marital satisfaction in relation to social support, coping, and quality of life in medical staff in Tehran, Iran
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Marital satisfaction is one of the main characteristics of a healthy family, and is known as an important predictor of overall quality of life. Stress is unavoidable in everyday life and it can affect marital relationships. Furthermore, employed married individuals encounter more stressors than do unmarried ones, especially when their jobs are demanding and stressful, such as working as medical professionals in hospitals. Applying effective coping strategies and receiving social support, especially from emotionally close persons, are protective factors which can help individuals deal with stress and buffer the negative effects of life stress on marital and life satisfaction. In the present cross-sectional investigation, marital satisfaction was studied in relation to socio-demographic variables, social support, ways of coping, and quality of life in medical staff in Tehran. Data were collected from 653 medical staff who worked in 12 hospitals affiliated with Tehran Medical University using socio-demographic questions, the ENRICH marital satisfaction questionnaire, the SF-36 questionnaire, the Social Support questionnaire, and the Ways of Coping questionnaire. The results indicated that marital satisfaction, quality of life and spousal support were significantly higher in men than women. Spousal support was significantly associated with marital satisfaction especially in women. Multiple regression analyses indicated that marital satisfaction, social support, and job satisfaction combined with socio-demographic variables explain between 12% and 28% of the variance in quality of life domains. Analysing the data with special focus on females revealed a significant negative relationship between subscales of marital satisfaction and using “seeking social support”, “confrontive coping”, “escape avoidance”, “distancing”, and “self-controlling” as ways of coping. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that job satisfaction, social support, and ways of coping explained between 24% and 38% of the variance in seven of the nine subscales of marital satisfaction. Therefore, focusing on the study findings could be helpful in promoting marital satisfaction and quality of life in married medical staff.
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| 14. |
- Skoog, Viktoria, 1981-
(författare)
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Barn som flyttas i offentlig regi : En studie av förekomst och upplevelser av instabil samhällsvård för barn
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the incidence of instability in out-of-home care for children and how children experience this instability. The dissertation consists of two studies. The quantitative study is based on an examination of social work case files of 213 children who began 317 placements in 2005 and 2006. Every placement was followed for a maximum of two years. The qualitative study used interpretive phenomenology as method and is based on interviews with 12 purposively selected children who had experienced placement breakdown at some point during 2011 or 2012. The quantitative study shows that the majority of children had experienced problems in their home environments prior to placement. Most commonly reported was parents’ substance abuse or mental health problems. Preschool and schoolchildren were more often placed in care due to neglect whereas adolescents were placed because of their own behavior problems or relational problems. Children in the qualitative study described that the problems they experienced prior to coming into care continued to influence them during their time in care.The quantitative study indicates that different types of instability are associated with children’s ages. That is, breakdown was most common for adolescents whereas preschool children more often experienced planned placements changes. Children in the qualitative study gave similar descriptions of planned placement changes and placement breakdown. The difficulty with which these children experienced the move from a foster family or group home depended on their relationship to caregivers. Therefore, planned placement changes from foster homes or institutional settings in which children reported being happy were described as more difficult than breakdown in placements from which children wanted to move. In children’s views, breakdown was caused by mismatches between them and caregivers, mistreatment in care settings, and their own behavior problems. However, children explained that when social workers did not listen to them, behavior problems in the form of running away, self-harming or behaving badly, were the only way of ending placements in which they were miserable.All children in the qualitative study described a wish for close relationships with consistent adults and an opportunity to feel that they belong somewhere. These fundamental needs were difficult for them to have satisfied due to their parents’ problematic life histories, instability in care which repeatedly placed children in new care situations, and a lack of continuity of social workers.
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| 15. |
- Wiklund, Stefan, 1968-
(författare)
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Den kommunala barnavården - om anmälningar, organisation och utfall
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis presents descriptions and analyses of the municipal-based work that precedes service provision in child welfare, i.e. referrals where concerns regarding children and adolescents are made from professionals and general public and the processing of these referrals within child welfare agencies. The central focus lies to examine the importance of organisational factors – such as formal structures, resources and working methods – in this work. The empirical material in studies 1-3 consists of data collected on location in 100 municipalities during 2001-2002 augmented with official statistics and register data. Data in study 4 consists of telephone interviews in the city of Stockholm’s 18 districts, written material and in-depth interviews in one of the districts.Study 1 describes the extent and nature of referrals to child welfare agencies. The study shows that the extent of Swedish referrals occupies a medium position in an international perspective, that referrals mainly concern adolescents, and that child referrals to a comparatively little extent concern abuse and neglect.Study 2 analyses the association between agency collaborative involvement with mandated reporters and referral rates. The association is overall marginal, indicating that merely the presence of collaboration in child welfare has poor effects on case finding.Study 3 analyses the association between organisational factors and the provision of child welfare services. To some extent, the results suggest that personnel resources are linked to the extent of services provided to younger children. Specialisation in various forms, however, is not associated with variations in service provision.Study 4 describes and analyses the impact of organisational solutions in line with New Public Management. The results indicate that this theoretical/ideological idea has limited practicality in concrete child welfare work.An introductory section presents a comprehensive background to and the theoretical framework of the four studies. The theoretical framework consists principally of concepts and reasoning derived from new institutional theory. This framework is used to discuss results generated from the four studies. Specific attention is given to institutions and ideas in child welfare that have a ‘taken for granted’ status, such as early interventions, collaboration and the presumed appropriateness of a range of organisational settings.
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| 16. |
- 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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| 17. |
- 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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| 18. |
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| 19. |
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| 20. |
- Jensen, Irene B., et al.
(författare)
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A randomized controlled component analysis of a behavioral medicine rehabilitation program for chronic spinal pain: are the effects dependent on gender?
- 2001
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Ingår i: Pain. - : LWW. - 0304-3959 .- 1872-6623. ; 91:1, s. 65-78
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the present study was to evaluate the outcome of a behavioral medicine (BM) rehabilitation program and the outcome of its two main components, compared to a ‘treatment-as-usual’ control group (CG). The study employed a 4×4 repeated-measures design with four groups and four assessment periods (pre-treatment, post-treatment, 6-month follow-up, and 18-month follow-up). The group studied consisted of subjects on sick leave identified in a nationwide health insurance scheme in Sweden. After inclusion, the subjects were randomized to one of four conditions, which were: (1) behavior-oriented physical therapy (PT); (2) cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT); (3) BM rehabilitation consisting of PT+CBT (BM); (4) a ‘treatment-as-usual’ CG. The treatments were given over a period of 4 weeks, PT and CBT on a part-time basis and BM on a full-time basis. Outcome variables were sick leave, early retirement, and health-related quality of life (measured using the Short Form Health Survey, SF-36). The results showed that the risk of being granted full-time early retirement was significantly lower for females in PT and CBT compared to the CG during the 18-month follow-up period. However, the total absence from work (sick listing plus early retirement) in days over the 18-month follow-up period was not significantly different in the CG compared to the treatments. On the SF-36, women in CBT and BM reported a significantly better health-related quality of life than women in the CG at the 18-month follow-up. No significant differences for men were found on the SF-36 scales. In conclusion, the results revealed gender differences in the outcome of the treatments and that the components of this BM program yielded as good results as the whole program.
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| 21. |
- Jensen, Irene B., et al.
(författare)
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Assessing the Needs of Patients in Pain: A Matter of Opinion?
- 2000
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Ingår i: Spine. - : LWW. - 0362-2436 .- 1528-1159. ; 25:21, s. 2816-2823
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Study Design. A prospective cohort study including patients with nonspecific spinal pain was performed.Objectives. To investigate whether the use of expert judgment in routine practice can provide a basis for reliable decision making concerning the need for intervention in patients with spinal pain and their ability to benefit from treatment.Summary of Background Data. A wide range of instruments and techniques are used to assess and treat patients with spinal pain. Many instruments are used without being clinimetrically tested.Methods. A questionnaire concerning the patients’ need of treatment and their potential to assimilate it was sent to experts in the health care arena: physicians, physical therapists, social insurance officers. The experts included were those connected with patients participating in a larger outcome study. Two cohorts of patients (sample 1, n = 217; sample 2, n = 257) were followed for 6 and 12 months, during which time the patients’ health and work status were mapped.Results. No acceptable agreement was found between any of the experts’ ratings of patients’ needs and potential for rehabilitation. Logistic regression showed that the experts’ judgments were based almost solely on the age of the patient. The prediction analyses showed that the most consistent predictor of the patients’ status at the 6-month follow-up assessment was the patients’ own belief in the existence of effective treatments and their perceived ability for learning to cope with the condition.Conclusions. Expert judgment as exercised in routine practice cannot be used as basis for reliable decision making concerning the need of the patient with spinal pain for intervention and the patient’s ability to benefit from treatment.
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| 22. |
- Linblad, Inger, 1963-
(författare)
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Problembilder av barn : Representationer, föreställningar och strategier i BRIS stödtelefon 1996-98
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A number of countries including Sweden have developed children’s helplines as free and anonymous counseling services for children and youth. The aim of this study was to deepen knowledge about how the problems of children and youth are represented and constructed in Sweden’s BRIS (Children’s Rights in Society) Children’s Helpline, telephone support between the years 1996 and 1998. The work was social constructivistic, examining how helpline responders understand and interpret information received during support calls. The concept of “the concern” is highlighted as a point of study of problem constructions within micro-counselling. The empirical material consisted primarily of interviews with persons who worked at BRIS either as employed ombudspersons or as volunteer telephone responders. Eleven ombudspersons replied to questions about the Children’s Helpline and how support services are organized. Thirty eight interviews were carried out with helpline responders at two separate occasions during the study period. Fifteen of these interviews provided material for an in depth investigation of responders preconceptions of children and youth’s everyday life, as well as the themes of gender, problematic relationships and assault as well as the strategies that responders used in their supportive calls. Statistical information was collected from BRIS reports. Fifteen completed questionnaires from support calls were included in this study. Analytical processes resulted in the development of the two theoretical concepts of familiarity and micro-understanding. General representations of children and youth situations are put forth via descriptions of misery. The responders’ concepts of children’s everyday life appear fragmentary because of the limited information available about the caller. Gender issues are constructed around questions of feminity and sexuality. The theme of assault contains calls from both girls and boys. Boys’ calls about assault are constructed around bullying and physical assault. Girls’ call are also constructed around violence but also include sexual abuse and molestation. This study contributes to the growing field of knowledge about the problem images of children and youth that emanate from support calls made to telephone helplines.
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
- Nygren, Lennart, Professor emeritus, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Welfare regimes and social workers' conceptions of social problems and professional roles : a comparative study of Chile, Ireland, Lithuania and Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - : Stavanger University Library. - 0809-9936. ; 18:2, s. 207-235
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article compares social work in countries representing four different welfare regimes: Chile, the Republic of Ireland (refer to elsewhere as ‘Ireland’), Lithuania and Sweden. The aim is to examine how social workers in different contexts refer to families’ complex needs, how contextual factors influence social workers’ positions and actions, and how they make sense of their work. Social workers in 15 focus groups, 4 per country except for Chile with 3, were interviewed about their conceptions of ‘family’, ‘families with complex needs’, and reasoning about interventions in relation to a fictitious complex case vignette. The understanding of complex needs appears relatively individualized in Chile and Lithuania, while contextual factors were more pronounced in the Irish and Swedish material. Chile, exemplifying a familialized family policy regime, reflects a poverty-compensatory social worker role that also supports familial reproduction; Ireland, a partly de-familialized regime, reflects a supportive and risk-reactive role; Lithuania, a re-familialized regime reflects a patriarchal risk-reducing role and Sweden, a de-familialized policy regime, reflects a rights-oriented and technocratic role. Welfare regimes shape different social work practice contexts. However, to some extent, social workers around the world share a common work ethos in how they, for the best interest of the people they work with, deal with the cross-pressure from social problems and political-ideological priorities.
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| 25. |
- Oltedal, Siv, et al.
(författare)
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The use of vignettes in an international comparative social work research : In-practice and on-practice reflections on practices
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Social Work. - : Stavanger University Library. - 0809-9936. ; 18:2, s. 236-248
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this article is to reflect on the strengths and challenges in qualitative comparative research on personal social services. The specific methodological approach that these reflections emerge from is the application of case vignettes in focus group interviews with social workers, working in different welfare regimes.We describe the process of vignette construction and implementation in focus group interviews, and relate this to findings in a large international project with researchers and data from Chile, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Ireland and the UK.Findings reveal that some globally spread professional norms prevail when they are applied locally, while others are more formed through welfare systems with strong contextual norms and legal and socio-economic barriers. Furthermore, the project showed that to use case vignettes and focus groups, in order to compare ‘social work’ in its totality between countries, is really difficult. It appears more fruitful to use such research methods to compare subsectors and sub-disciplines instead of social work as a whole. The strength of the data retrieved from the study is that it makes it possible to separate information on actual practice from information on principles and system norms, thus providing in-practice and on-practice reflections.
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| 26. |
- Sundh, Kenneth
(författare)
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Socialtjänstens strukturinriktade arbete : utveckling, möjligheter och hinder
- 1999
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The dissertation is based on two empirical studies that have the common aim of expanding our knowledge of the possibilities available to social workers to develop and carry out structurally oriented community work within the municipal social services. The first study, conducted in 1982-1984, was part of a larger study of the implementation of the Social Services Act. It was designed as a case study of four municipalities in Sweden, each of which had different structural characteristics (Suburbia, Bigtown, Middletown and Countryside). In the beginning of the 1990s (1991-1993) a follow-up study was made of these four municipalities. The study as a whole can be characterised as an example of the qualitative case study research approach. Three central problems are treated in the dissertation: a) What were the extent and direction of the structurally oriented interventions carried out in the four municipalities during the 1980s? b) What effect did the actors themselves and the municipal organisation have on the possibility of the social services to develop and carry out such interventions? c) What effect did the purchaser-provider model have on this endeavour? The concepts of power, welfare state and profession are discussed as being of central importance to the conclusions reached in the study. The development that took place in the municipalities can, in summary, be described as a professionalisation of the strategies for participatory community planning and a de-professionalisation of community and neighbourhood work. The dissertation shows that the social services were both successful and unsuccessful in the 1980s in their attempts to develop methods to effect changes on the structural level of the municipality. The analysis shows that both the successes and the failures depend on the complex interplay of various sources of power: the power of specific individuals and interest groups, the power of ideology, the power of the profession, and the power of the organisation.
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| 27. |
- Uttjek, Margaretha, 1955-
(författare)
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Psoriasis care consumption and consequences of having psoriasis in everyday life
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis concerns a research project about psoriasis care and conse¬quences of psoriasis in the county of Västerbotten in Northern Sweden. The overall aim of the thesis is to contribute to improvement of psoriasis care through increased knowledge of the use and accessibility of psoriasis care, and knowledge of impact of psoriasis on patients’ daily lives by describing and interpreting: (i) accessibility and use of psoriasis care, (ii) consequences of having psoriasis in everyday life, and (iii) dilemmas in psoriasis care and visions of future care among professionals, politicians and administrators. The theoretical framework in the psoriasis project was based on previous research, theories and concepts about priority setting, stigma, coping and qual¬ity of life. Parts of the framework were basis of the project plan and other parts were included in order to analyse the findings. Two different methodological approaches were used as complement to each other. The project started with a questionnaire to all known persons with psoriasis in Västerbotten with ques¬tions about socio-economic factors, psoriasis symptoms, psoriasis care, and quality of life. These formed the basis for two studies. The first focused on quality of life, and the other on gender differences in psoriasis care. Qualita¬tive research interviews were made with persons with psoriasis, and with ad¬ministrators, politicians and professionals. The interviews formed the basis for two studies focusing on consequences of psoriasis, and priorities and visions in psoriasis care, respectively. Findings from the studies are reported in four papers. Accessibility of psoriasis care influenced the use among persons with pso¬riasis. Use was also influenced by age, income, joint symptoms and quality of life. Men used psoriasis care more often than women. Both genders expected professional care and amelioration, while more women valued polite treat¬ment. Expectations were fulfilled apart from amelioration. Among decision makers, accessibility and issues on organisation and ethics involved priority dilemmas. The persons with psoriasis stated that visibility of both skin psoria¬sis and joint changes, as well as being stigmatised, was the worst with living with psoriasis. The visibility and stigmatisation were most difficult in younger ages. Some of those with both rashes and joint changes thus felt stigmatised in a twofold way. In order to deal with these difficulties, commonly used coping strategies were routinisation of both treatment and of adjustment to the stigma¬tising process, a strategy which could not be found in literature, and accep¬tance. These strategies developed with age. Those with large disease extent and joint symptoms run the highest risk of impaired health-related quality of life. Most of the interviewed participants, took power over their lives and by using coping strategies created an acceptable personal quality of life for them¬selves. Still they could not find anything positive with having psoriasis. In specialised care as well as local health care, special attention should be paid to gender differences and distance to treatment facilities, and handling of possible stigmatisation in patient care. This thesis suggests that the coping theories should be complemented with routinisation as a coping strategy for psoriasis patients. Also, more research on the usefulness of the letter of referral and its consequence on equality and fairness are suggested.
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| 28. |
- Wikström, Eva, 1966-
(författare)
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"Hela världen på vår tröskel" : lokala reaktioner på en utlokaliserad flyktingförläggning
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis describes, conceptualizes and analyzes local reactions to the establishment of a refugee center in a small, remote mining community in Malmliden, rural Sweden, in the early 1990s. The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the local and wider contexts in which the reactions took place and to understand reactions in relation to these contexts. The study combined qualitative interviews, participant observation and the analysis of texts from different sources: daily press, historical and policy documents. Twenty-seven persons were included in the interview study (nineteen respondents and eight key infor-mants). Interviews with the nineteen respondents (nine men and ten women) were based on a semi-structured interview manual and were carried out during the winter of 1993 and the spring of 1994. Theo-retical frames and concepts were chosen in an elaborative way that was suitable for the empirical findings that gradually developed. In short, theoretical considerations that focus on social and political processes of inclusion and exclusion, ethnic relations and categorizations and the interplay between the social and the individual frame the analysis. The analysis is more closely informed by perspectives on how the atti-tudes toward the asylum seeker (as an immigrant but also as a welfare-state client), as a representation of “the other”, are socially produced.This study revealed that the inhabitants had dual reactions to the localized refugee center in Malm-liden. The reactions could neither be characterised as positive nor negative. They were summarized as ambivalent and were expressed spatially and socially. The spatial aspects include a number of inhabitants’ positive experiences of the refugee center as something that brought vitality to the slumbering neighbor-hood, while others thought of the refugee center as something disturbing and displaced. The social aspects involved a number of inhabitant’s embrace of the refugee center and the asylum seekers, whereas others distance themselves from the center and the refugees. While some inhabitants were enriched by the con-tact with asylum seekers, others dissociated themselves from the refugees and other inhabitants who were involved with the refugee centre. Some of the reactions were expressed as resistance. These reactions were mostly expressed latently, toward the authorities or local Policy makers and not directly toward the refugees or the refugee center The inhabitants blamed the establishment of the refugee center and those employed there for the poor state of things because they represented symbols of change and uncertainty. Therefore, initially the resistance could not be understood as rooted in emotional antipathy toward refu-gees as a (ethnic) group or as individuals, but rather as resistance against a perceived intrusion into the neighborhood autonomy. However, the strategies of the inhabitants were avoidance of contact with the refugee center and the stigmatization of the refugees. Therefore, the actions of resistance resulted in a racialization of place and ethnic segregation. The dual reactions of the inhabitants were contextual, and in which local as well as national circumstances played a considerable role in shaping the inhabitants’ experiences. At both national and local levels, the attitudes and practices directed toward asylum seekers and refugees were ambivalent. The reasons for the local acceptance of asylum seekers were ambivalent, and in which both actions of solidarity and economic considerations came into play. An external circum-stance influenced expectations and reactions to the refugee center was an ambivalent refugee policy which aimed to integrate the asylum seeker with a normalized habitat but with an institutional framing, which clearly made the asylum seeker into a client. Another external factor was the welfare state position of the asylum seeker, as he or she was positioned in an ambivalent juridical, social and political position. The overall conclusion is that the positions of the asylum seekers in the neighborhood of Malmliden were further stressed as welfare state clients and not as ordinary neighbors. A concluding image is that the contextual ambivalent positioning of the asylum seekers was reflected in the way the inhabitants regarded the asylum seekers as others in the neighborhood community.
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