| 1. |
- Bodin, Maja, 1984-
(author)
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To Plan or Not to Plan : Gender Perspectives on Pregnancy Planning, Fertility Awareness and Preconception Health and Care
- 2018
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The level of pregnancy planning is of importance to the well-being of parents and children. Unintended and/or unwanted pregnancies are often associated with less health promoting behavior during pregnancy, poorer health of the new born, and relationship dissatisfaction. Preconception care is a health service with the purpose to encourage people to become mindful about their reproductive intentions and raise fertility awareness, in order to maintain or improve reproductive health.Reproductive health is a highly gendered area, both due to biological conditions and social expectations on gender. In most cases, the focus of reproductive health and health promotion is on cis-women and their bodies. This thesis mainly focuses on persons self-identifying as men. The aim is to scrutinize the area of preconception health, investigate what pregnancy planning means to men and explore the relationship between pregnancy planning and fertility awareness.In Study I, 136 couples who attended their first antenatal visit answered questions about pregnancy planning. Most pregnancies were planned and couples had similar perceptions of the level of their planning. Study II describes pregnancy planning behavior and fertility knowledge among 796 recent fathers. Also in this study, most pregnancies were planned and 17% of the men had made at least one preconception lifestyle adjustment to improve health and fertility. Fertility knowledge varied greatly, although men with higher education demonstrated higher knowledge. Study III explores if Reproductive Life Plan-based counselling during a sexual health visit could increase men’s fertility awareness. The counselling had a moderate effect on participants’ fertility knowledge but managed to raise new thoughts about their own fertility, and was well received. Study IV follows up on the results from the first three studies, through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 25 men aged 23-49. Most participants took their fertility for granted. To cis-men in heterosexual relationships, the meaning of pregnancy planning usually meant taking the decision to try to become pregnant, and not much more. Trans-men and gay men where more invested in practical planning issues. In conclusion, this thesis shows how pregnancy planning is gendered, and that it is a more complex phenomenon than previously acknowledged.
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| 2. |
- Grönte, Maria
(author)
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Skam, moralarbete och faderskap : en studie om mötet mellan socialsekreterare och pappor vid våld i nära relationer
- 2024
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Men's domestic violence and/or abuse (DVA) is a widespread social issue. Often, the men are fathers, and the victims are mothers and children. In Sweden, social workers (SWs) are expected to involve these fathers in child protection investigations (CPIs) and work towards changing their behavior. However, engaging fathers in CPIs has proven to be a challenging task, especially when they involve DVA by fathers. The overall aim of this licentiate thesis is to examine how fathers can be engaged in CPIs initiated as a result of their suspected DVA against the mothers of their children. The licentiate thesis is a compilation thesis that consist of two articles, with the first having been published in a peer-review journal and the second submitted to a journal awaiting review. Using qualitative methods. I conducted semi structured interviews with 15 social workers on a total of 31 occasions during their work with 12 ongoing CPIs. Seven fathers have also been interviewed. The interviewed fathers had been involved in CPIs as a result of their DVA against the mothers of their children and had undergone treatment targeting their violent/abusive behavior.The interviews with the SWs are addressed in the first article, and the interviews with the fathers in the second article. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The first article examines the strategies used by SWs to achieve cooperation with fathers in CPIs that involve the father being suspected of DVA against the child's mother. This analysis is rooted in the framework of shame, guilt, and social bonds. The results suggest that whether social workers succeed in achieving cooperation with fathers is related to the social workers' strategies of building secure social bonds with the fathers, which may alleviate the fathers' feelings of shame. However, there is a risk that these strategies may lead to DVA being minimized or overlooked. Striking a balance between building a social bond and addressing DVA is crucial, and the timing of addressing DVA plays a central role. The second article highlights fathers' experiences of interactions with SWs in the context of CPIs initiated as a result of their DVA against the mothers of their children. In particular, the focus is directed at how ideals of fatherhood, power relations, and shame influence fathers' experiences of engaging in these meetings. The analysis is guided by shame, guilt and social bonds linked to a gender theoretical framework. The results suggest that DVA contributes to fathers violating moral ideals of good fatherhood, which threatens to deprive them of contact with their children and also triggers feelings of shame. In the CPIs, it is the SWs, often female, who hold power over the processes while fathers are subordinated, which challenges expected power structures and hegemonic masculinity ideals. Fathers' engagement in CPIs is enabled when fathers adopt a subordinate position, which is facilitated by SWs meeting them with care and non-judgmental attitudes. This subordinate position can be a useful means for fathers to maintain an intact masculine position when DVA is exposed, shame is triggered, and their fatherhood and social bonds are threatened. However, SWs need to be attentive to the risk that fathers may both downplay their DVA and adopt positions that may be perceived as caring, egalitarian, and change-oriented even though their dominance – in the form of DVA – may persist.In summary, the study indicates that it is challenging but possible to successfully engage these fathers in CPIs. The study suggests that SWs need to balance building social bonds with the fathers and addressing the violence without imposing further shame. The findings highlight a particularly crucial aspect in the interaction, which is the SWs' ability to meet the fathers in a way that they do not feel judged for who they are - perpetrators of DVA. Instead, focusing on the violence as actions, on what they have done. In doing so, actions are separated from the self and can instead manifest as guilt. This approach can both facilitate fathers' engagement in CPIs and point towards taking responsibility for and changing the violent/abusive behaviors.
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| 3. |
- Markström, Annica, 1974-
(author)
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Barns delaktighet och aktörskap i mötet med socialtjänstens öppenvård
- 2024
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Children have the right to participate in matters concerning them. The Swedish Child Welfare Services constitute an arena in which a significant portion of open care interventions for children and their families take place, and thus a context in which children’s participation should be realized. The overall aim of this licentiate thesis is to explore how child participation is constructed in interventions provided by Swedish Child Welfare Services. The study is based on social constructionist theory and includes semi structured interviews with 11 children aged 7-16, whom had experience of receiving open care interventions provided by Swedish Child Welfare Services over a period of time and focus group discussions with 14 family social workers who provide suchlike interventions. The data were analysed using Thematic Analysis. The first article, which has been published in a peer-review journal, is based on semi structured interviews with the children and focus group discussions with the family social workers. The article explores how child participation is constructed in interventions provided by Swedish Child Welfare Services and which elements are of importance to this process. The results suggest that child participation is a collaborative process in which both the child and the family social worker have an active role to play. Participation is done through a series of seemingly small, everyday actions by the child and the family social worker. By actively asking questions and allowing the child to practice participation and influence the process, the family social workers can, together with the child, work toward increased child participation in interventions. The second article explores children's actions of participation and how these can be understood in relation to situational constraints using the concept of agency. The article is based on the interviews with the children. The findings suggests that children's actions, as described by the children, are formed in relation to the context. Some actions of participation can be described as permissible and some, when children behave in a way that exceeds the boundaries permitted by their position as children, disturb the existing order. The results suggest there are situational constraints, such as limited range of options available to influence the intervention, limited access to apply for support and limited ways to find new solutions when the children are not satisfied with an intervention. The overall contribution of the study lies in the enhanced understanding of the collaborative process through which participation is done, as well as the increased knowledge of children’s actions of participation in a social work context.
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| 4. |
- Grönvall, Ylva
(author)
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The Purchase of Sex : Perceptions, Experiences, and Social Work Practices
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this study is to explore sex buyers’ perceptions and experiences of purchasing sex, and to study how the purchase of sex is constructed as a social problem in Swedish social work practice. The empirical material consists of interviews with 30 men with experiences of purchasing sex and with ten social workers conducting counselling or outreach work with men who purchase sex. The dissertation is a compilation thesis that consists of four papers, that have been published in international peer-review journals. The first paper focuses on how men who buy sex as one-time visitors navigate between commercialization and intimacy in a national context criminalizing their actions. The paper explores the construction of meaning and intimacy in commercial relationships for Swedish men buying sex, and how these men describe relational practices and strategies used when they purchased sex. The second paper explores the construction of intimacy among men engaged in longterm transactional relationships with women. The paper focuses on the meaning of transactions for intimacy in long-term paid sexual relationships. The third paper explores how men who purchase sex in a context in which their activities are criminalized understand and perceive risk. The paper focuses on individual assessments of risk in relation to experiences of crime, exploitation, and stigma. The fourth paper aims at exploring social workers’ understanding of the purchase of sex as a social problem. The study focuses on social workers’ approaches to the purchase of sex in relation to values, professional practices, and political goals, and how they navigate these aspects in their encounters with individuals who purchase sex. The four papers show how individual experiences are understood, navigated, and conceptualized in relation to social interaction and social norms. The participants in both sub-studies navigate between their own experiences and perceptions, moral values, and social norms in regard to the purchase of sex in Sweden. Both the sex buyers and the social workers conceptualize and make sense of the purchase of sex based on their individual experiences as sex buyers or as social workers meeting sex buyers, but they also relate to normative ideas about the purchase of sex and about ‘sex buyers’.
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