Syftet med studien var att undersöka samverkan mellan skolan och Barn- och ungdomspsykiatrin (BUP) utifrån professionellas upplevelser. För att besvara studiens syfte antogs en kvalitativ ansats där sju halvstrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med kuratorer och enhetschef från BUP samt skolkuratorer och skolsköterska från skolans elevhälsa. Insamlad data analyserades med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet visade att den samverkan som sker idag till stor del fungerar väl på individnivå till följd av en vilja bland professionella att samverka. Det som försvårar samverkan återfanns i högre grad på strukturell och organisatorisk nivå, genom faktorer som resursbrist och bristande tillgänglighet. Resultatet tydde på att ökad kunskap om varandra och verksamheternas olika uppdrag, i kombination med respekt och samsyn, var viktiga faktorer för fungerande samverkan. Resultatet visade även hur samverkan kunde göra stor skillnad för individer och uppvisade en önskan hos de professionella att samverka mer, men också att samverkan ibland används felaktigt och initieras trots vetskap om att det inte finns resurser att förändra situationen för barnet. Den fördjupade resultatanalysen gjordes med utgångspunkt i vår teoretiska referensram som baserades på systemteori, frontlinjebyråkraten samt modellen för horisontell- och vertikal integrering och med hjälp av studiens kunskapsöversikt. Studiens slutsats var att samverkan är en stor del av arbetet med att höja barns välmående och funktionsnivå. För att uppnå välfungerande samverkan krävs främst förändringar på strukturell och organisatorisk nivå. / The aim of the study was to examine collaboration between school and Child- and adolescent psychiatry. To achieve the purpose of the study we used a qualitative approach by doing seven semi-structured interviews with professionals from schools and child- and adolescent psychiatry. Our data was analysed by a qualitative content analysis. The result pointed out that collaboration today was well functioning on an individual level due to a strong will among professionals to collaborate. Difficulties with collaboration appeared to be on a structural and organizational level, such as lack of resources and availability. The result suggested that increased knowledge about each other and about the different missions of included actors, combined with respect and consensus, was important to reach well-functioning collaboration. The results also showed how collaboration tends to make a great difference to people and indicated a wish to collaborate more among the professionals, but also that collaboration sometimes tends to be misused and was initiated despite the knowledge that there are no resources to change the situation for the child. Our analysis of the result was made on basis of System theory, the theory of street level bureaucrat and the model of vertical- and horizontal integration, combined with previous research knowledge. The conclusion of the study was that collaboration is an important part of the work to improve children’s well-being and functionality. For a successful collaboration, changes have to be done on a structural- and organizational level.

Adolescent depression is a major public health problem, which is associated with educational problems, long-term psychiatric illness and suicide. One major source of stress during adolescence is peer rejection. In this thesis, I investigate the nature of the relationship between peer rejection and adolescent depression. In a review of longitudinal and experimental studies, I describe a bi-directional relationship between peer rejection and depressive symptoms. I then outline how genetic, cognitive and neural vulnerability may modify the effects of peer rejection on adolescent depression. Finally, I introduce five empirical chapters which test these hypotheses using different methodological approaches. The first study is a molecular genetic analysis of a sample of adolescents with and without a diagnosis of mood disorder. I report an interaction between diagnostic group, environmental stress (though not peer rejection specifically) and 5HTTLPR genotype on symptoms of anxiety, which supports the role of genetic factors in modifying the relationship between environmental stress and adolescent mood disorder. The second study is a behavioural study of negative attention biases in a typically developing sample of adolescents. I report a negative attention bias in adolescents with low (versus high) self-esteem. Although the data do not support a causal role for attention biases in adolescent depression, such biased cognitions could also moderate responses to peer rejection, maintaining affective symptoms. A final set of three fMRI datasets investigates how neural circuitry may influence depressed adolescents’ responses to peer rejection at three distinct stages: i) expectation of peer feedback, ii) the receipt of peer rejection, iii) emotion regulation of peer rejection. Data show distinct behavioural and neural differences between depressed patients and healthy controls during expectation and reappraisal of peer rejection, although heightened emotional reactivity immediately following the receipt of peer rejection did not differentiate behavioural or neural responses in adolescents with and without depression.

Les défis rencontrés dans les soins en santé mentale dans un contexte clinique interculturel sont nombreux, en raison, notamment, des différences de perceptions et de la stigmatisation culturelle de la maladie mentale (Hwang, Myers, Abe-Kim, & Ting, 2008; Alegria, Atkins, Farmer, Slaton, & Stelk, 2010). Les soins infirmiers en santé mentale ne semblent pas toujours adaptés aux besoins particuliers des adolescents et leur famille issus d’origines culturelles diverses (Alegria, Vallas, & Pumariega, 2010; Dogra & Vostanis, 2007; McKenzie et al., 2009). La pratique de soins infirmiers dans ce contexte est très peu documentée dans les écrits scientifiques pour nous permettre d’adresser en profondeur cette problématique. Le but de cette étude de cas multiples, tel que préconisée par Stake (2005), est de décrire la pratique de soins infirmiers en pédopsychiatrie dans un contexte clinique interculturel. Le cadre de référence de cette étude est celui des six volets de compétences requises pour l’infirmière en santé mentale et en soins psychiatriques émis par l’Ordre des infirmières et des infirmiers du Québec (2009). Les résultats de cette étude qualitative proviennent de l’analyse descriptive d’entretiens individuels (n=7) auprès d’infirmières en pédopsychiatrie qui ont accompagné au moins un adolescent et sa famille dans un contexte clinique interculturel. Les données issues de ces entretiens ont été validées lors de deux entretiens de groupe où un cas prototype, composé à partir des données issues des entretiens individuels, a été soumis à la discussion. Les résultats de cette étude révèlent des perceptions de la pratique de soins infirmiers dans un contexte clinique interculturel et des interventions privilégiées par des infirmières. Des recommandations pour la pratique, la formation et la recherche en sciences infirmières ont été formulées. / The challenges in mental health care in an intercultural clinical context are numerous, notably, because of the differences in perceptions and cultural stigma of mental illness (Hwang, Myers, Abe-Kim, & Ting, 2008; Alegria, Atkins, Farmer, Slaton, & Stelk, 2010). Nursing practices in mental health don’t always seem suited to the specific needs of the adolescents and their families from culturally diverse backgrounds (Alegria, Vallas, & Pumariega, 2010; Dogra & Vostanis, 2007; McKenzie et al., 2009). The practice of nursing in this context is poorly documented to address this issue in depth. The purpose of this multiple case study (Stake, 2005), is to describe the practice of nursing in child and adolescent psychiatry in an intercultural clinical context. The six areas of expertise required for the mental health nurses and psychiatric nurses describe by the Quebec Order of nurses (2009) were used as framework. The results of this qualitative study were obtained from descriptive analysis of individual interviews (n=7) with child and adolescent psychiatric nurses who accompanied at least one teenager and his family in an intercultural clinical context. The data from these interviews were validated in two group interviews, where a prototype case, made from data from the individual interviews, was submitted to discussion. The results of this study indicate perceptions of nursing practice in an intercultural clinical context and preferred nursing practices. Recommendations for practice, education and nursing research were made.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine associations between parenting and child callous-unemotional (CU) behavior in a high-risk sample of children aged 2-9 years. First, a narrative review examined the construct of CU behavior, focusing specifically on definitions and measurement of the affective and interpersonal dimensions of psychopathy, and their applicability to youth. Second, a systematic review examined evidence from 30 studies that had investigated associations between dimensions of parenting and CU traits. Studies were classified as testing one of five different research questions. Third, five different empirical studies tested various research questions pertaining to associations between parenting and CU behavior. Data from mother-child dyads N = 731; 49% female) were collected from a multi-ethnic and high-risk sample, and included multi-method observed measures of parenting. Study 1 found that observed harsh and positive parenting predicted child CU behavior from ages 2-4, controlling for earlier child behavior and various demographic covariates. Study 2 employed a moderator design, and found that harsh and warm parenting were more strongly related to the conduct problems of children with high versus low levels of CU behavior. Study 3 tested cross-lagged simultaneous and reciprocal effects models, and found that parental warmth (observed and expressed by parents in speech samples) uniquely predicted child CU behavior versus conduct problems. Study 4 tested the factor structure of Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU; Frick, 2004), finding support for a three-Bifactor structure. Finally, Study 5 found that parent-child affective interactions at ages 2-3 predicted CU traits at age 9, over and above general behavior problems. Taken together, the results of this thesis suggest that CU features are more malleable than previously thought. In particular, aspects of parental affect and warm parenting behavior appear to be important key targets of investigation for future empirical and intervention studies.

Introduction: Prenatal maternal depression is associated with an increased risk of psychopathology in childhood. The understanding of the mechanisms underlying this association is limited. Further, despite high rates of prenatal depression in the developing world, no research investigating this issue exists from these settings. Objectives: The primary objectives of this thesis are to study the association between prenatal maternal depression and the following early offspring outcomes in a non-smoking, non-alcohol consuming prenatal sample from rural, South India: Foetal stress responsivity, measured through foetal heart rate (FHR). Infant stress responsivity, measured through infant cortisol response to immunisation. Infant temperament. Methods: 194 pregnant women from Solur, India were assessed for depression. The first 67 mothers with elevated symptoms of prenatal depression and the first 66 controls underwent FHR monitoring to study foetal stress responsivity. 58 mother-infant dyads returned at 1.5-3 months post birth. Infant salivary cortisol was measured before and after immunisation. Information on infant temperament and maternal postnatal depression (PND) was also collected. Results: Twenty nine mothers (14.9%) met a diagnosis of major depression during pregnancy while 67 (34.5%) had elevated symptoms of prenatal depression. Whilst there were no linear association between prenatal depression and foetal responsivity, a curvilinear (U shaped) association existed with the foetuses of mothers with very high and very low levels of prenatal depression having elevated stress responses compared to those with moderate levels of prenatal depression. Prenatal depression predicted infant cortisol responsivity independent of PND (B=13.08, p=0.02).The relationship between infant cortisol responsivity and prenatal depression was also U shaped. There was no association between prenatal depression and infant temperament. Conclusions: This is the first study from the developing world investigating the relationship between prenatal depression and offspring outcomes. It provides evidence suggestive of the programming influence of prenatal depression on the developing offspring.

The treatment alliance has been described in the field of research to play an important role in the recovery of patients in psychiatric care. However there has been relatively little research concerning the treatment alliance specifically with children. The aim of this study was therefore to examine the role of the treatment alliance and how professionals work with the treatment alliance with children. Data was collected using qualitative interviews with six professionals from different Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Intermediate Care units located in Stockholm. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The themes that emerged were; The different dimensions of the treatment alliance, To create entrances and To take care of a treatment alliance. The theoretical tools that were used to interpret the results of this study were role theory and concepts from Child Alliance Process Theory. Our conclusions showed that professionals need to develop a treatment alliance not only with the child but also with their parents. Professionals also described the work with the treatment alliance as a two-part process that contains ways for professionals to develop and nurture the treatment alliance with children.

<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test is a widely used test for measuring aspects of social cognition. The aim of the present study was to provide results from a group of typically developing Swedish children (age 9-12) and to compare these results with children and adults in other Swedish and English studies, as well as results from a group of children with Asperger syndrome. <strong>Method: </strong>A Swedish version of the child version of the test was completed by 83 controls and by six children with Asperger syndrome. Results were compared between the two groups and with data from other studies. <strong>Results: </strong>The children in the current study did not differ on scores compared to children in the same age group in other studies. The children in the current study scored significantly lower than adults in an earlier study. The results from the children with Asperger syndrome did not differ significantly to the results from the controls.</p>

The negative impact of war on child mental health has been repeatedly documented. Still, the majority of children exposed to ethnic and political violence show no signs of clinical disorder. In Western countries of exile, these findings have prompted a variety of attempts to evaluate refugee children, in the hope of identifying and offering support to those children “at risk”. This study critically examines one such attempt. The aims are fourfold: 1. to describe the range and pattern of child trauma-stress exposure and mental health reactions as captured on clinician semi-structured interview; 2. to critically compare clinician assessment with independent parent, child and teacher reports; 3. to identify factors of potential risk or protective import for child mental health; 4. to draw clinical implications: from whom and by what means can children at risk be reasonably identified? The target of our study was the entire population of Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian speaking child refugee families assigned to Umeå and surrounding municipalities during 1994-95. Fifty families, containing 90 children aged one month to 20 years, were included in the study. Assessment occurred in two phases. First, a semi-structured interview was conducted that inquired broadly as to the child’s family background, trauma-stress exposure, emotional-behavioral problems, patterns of family functioning, and future hopes. Second, standardized self-report questionnaires were administered, separately to parent and child, to provide alternative appraisal of the child’s war exposure, mental health symptoms, coping strategies, and social network. Teacher evaluation of child cognitive-social functioning as well as emotional-behavioral problems was also obtained. Clinician semi-structured interview revealed the child’s pre-war period as preponderantly good, and provided richly detailed narratives of child exposure during war and resettlement that clustered into a limited number of type-stories. Independent parent assessment captured the same broad strokes of child war exposure; but both approaches – fixed questionnaire and semi-structured interview – showed specific areas of blindness. Teenage self-report offered a disparate but equally rich account of war exposure, while that of primary school child was significantly less detailed. Nearly half of the study children (48%) were identified on clinician interview with one or more mental health problem “demanding further attention”. Depressiveness was the single most prevalent symptom (31%), followed by posttraumatic reactions (23%) and anxiety-regressiveness (15%). Independent symptom appraisal by parent and primary school child was largely concordant with that of clinician, while teenagers made similar assessment as to who was in distress, but defined the nature of that distress differently. Teacher report stood apart, identifying fewer inward emotional problems and asserting the cognitive-social competence of the vast majority of study children. Trauma-stress exposure during both war and resettlement presented as an unequivocal risk to mental health, but accounted for only part of outcome variance. Additional factors of strong import related broadly to “living in the present”. Parent impairment of daily routines, child dissatisfaction with school and an ongoing quarrelsome relationship presented as risk factors. Protection was associated with parent maintenance of a warm family climate and of concrete physical-emotional caring, child social ties to physically present others, including teacher; and above all, a family sense of hope for the future. Results support the general robustness of our semi-structured approach. Exploring the child’s present well-being in narrative relation to past and future, our assessment captured and gave meaning to the complexity of child exposure and behavior. At the same time, independent parent and child appraisals provided an additional richness to the retelling and evaluation of child experience. Particularly the apartness of teacher report underscores the need to incorporate an outside-world vantage point in the process of risk assessment.

Children and parents who visited child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) for the first time were interviewed in the presence of their therapists about the first meeting. The interview was intended to make the attendants describe in their own words what the meeting was like for them. The interview was repeated after six months to get complementary information. Research assistants, reflectors, helped the interviewer to prevent from bias and to hold on to the theme. The grounded theory approach was utilised in papers I, II, and III, and qualitative content analysis was used in paper IV. Children appreciated the therapist being in an active as well as in a more passive but alert position, moving between asking adjusted questions and including the parents. The therapists’ skill of listening was also important to them. For the parents, it was important what happened between their child and the therapists. They questioned their own role and presence. Also, they focused on the plan for the meeting and for the coming process. Certain things that happened in the dialogue were useful after the meeting. The results indicate that what was helpful was connected to family therapy matters rather than psychiatric ones. The therapists balanced between a psychiatric and a family therapeutic position, and it was a dilemma for them how to best fulfil their assignment in the organisation as they perceived it. Two competing discourses were found in the first meeting; Structuring, which stood for structure, planning and expertise, while Collaboration represented negotiations of how to work together, empowerment and emotional aspects. The Structuring discourse tended to dominate. Both discourses consisted of valuable elements that needed to be included to ensure that the atmosphere would not be too strict or too flexible. The findings are tentative because of the lack of studies to compare to, and because of the few interviews made. / Det första möte som sker mellan familjemedlemmar och personal antas ha stor betydelse för hur den fortsatta kontakten artar sig. Det är ett tillfälle när var och en kan vara öppen för intryck och nyfiken på hur kommunikationen utvecklas och vilken hjälp som ska till. Förutsättningarna för mötet är etablerade på många plan. Föräldrarna och barnen har tidigare erfarenheter av både personliga och professionella kontakter, och de har förväntningar på vad som ska eller bör ske under det första samtalet. Personalen befinner sig i ett sammanhang där de har förväntningar på sig från organisationen. De har utbildning och erfarenhet och har anammat organisationens kultur och vanor i större eller mindre utsträckning. Både inom det psykiatriska eller det psykoterapeutiska området har det varit brist på studier som rör det första samtalet mellan professionell och patient/klient. Detta väckte ett intresse att studera området närmare. Syftet med studien var därför att försöka ta reda på mer om det första mötet ansikte mot ansikte mellan personal och familjemedlemmar. Vad händer där och hur upplevs det här mötet av dem som deltar? Ytterligare ett syfte var att försöka ta reda på vilka diskurser som påverkar det som sker mellan deltagarna. Vilka underliggande meningar har deltagarnas tankar och sätt att bete sig, och som har förankring i allmänna föreställningar om hur ett möte av det här slaget går till? Hur framträder det i deltagarnas kommunikation med varandra? För att finna svar på dessa frågor gjordes forskningsintervjuer inom två veckor respektive sex månader efter det första mötet på BUP (barn- och ungdomspsykiatrin). Vid intervjuerna deltog de som varit närvarande vid det första samtalet, d v s personal, föräldrar och barn. Intervjuaren hade till sin hjälp forskningsassistenter, reflektörer, vars uppgift var att bidra till att alla fick komma till tals och att man höll fokus på hur det var under det första samtalet. Fyra delstudier genomfördes. I de tre första användes analysmetoden grundad teori, och i den fjärde kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Den första delstudien lyfte fram barnens perspektiv. Barnen uppskattade om behandlarna befann sig ömsom i en aktiv ömsom i en passiv position, där de samtidigt var alerta i förhållande till barnen. De gillade att behandlarna å ena sidan anpassade sig och sina frågor till barnen och å andra sidan tog med föräldrarna i samtalet. Behandlarnas förmåga att lyssna och att hjälpa barnen att uttrycka sig var viktig för barnen. De tog också upp vikten av att behandlarna höll reda på tiden, så att samtalet inte blev för långt för dem. För föräldrarna, i delstudie II, visade det sig vara avgörande vad som skedde mellan deras barn och behandlarna. De ifrågasatte sin egen roll i mötet, och var tveksamma till om de borde vara närvarande eller inte. Dessutom var de inriktade på hur upplägget av samtalet såg ut och hur den fortsatta planeringen skulle bli. Vissa teman och yttranden i dialogen kunde vara till nytta för samspelet därhemma. Fynden i delstudien antyder att det som var till hjälp snarare låg på ett familjeterapeutiskt plan än ett psykiatriskt. I delstudie III framkom att behandlarna nedtonade sin egen insats och lyfte fram det viktiga i familjemedlemmarnas bidrag till hur mötet blev. Behandlarna balanserade mellan ett psykiatriskt och ett familjeterapeutiskt förhållningssätt. De mest tillfredsställande arbetsuppgifterna rörde att lyssna på barns och föräldrars berättelser och att hitta sätt att uppmuntra och stödja deras vägar till att må och fungera bättre. De önskade möta familjemedlemmarna på deras villkor, men hade också att samla information för bedömning och fortsatt planering. Det innebar ett dilemma för dem hur de bäst skulle kunna uppfylla de uppgifter som de uppfattade att BUP-organisationen gett dem. Två konkurrerande diskurser framträdde i delstudie IV. De var inflätade i varandra och stod att finna hos var och en av parterna barn, föräldrar och behandlare. Det syntes pågå balanserande eller konkurrens mellan de sociala röster som ingick i diskurserna. Diskursen Strukturering innehöll sociala röster som rörde exempelvis inramning av mötet, expertis och kategoriseringar medan diskursen Samarbete inriktades mot aspekter som öppenhet, sam-skapande och en utvidgad dialog. Om diskursen Strukturering skulle överväga blev följden antingen ett undertryckande och okänsligt förhållningssätt och diskursen Samarbete skulle om den övervägde kunna skapa ett otydligt eller alltför flexibelt förhållningssätt. Den förra diskursen tycktes dominera, men båda diskurserna syntes innehålla delar som behövdes för att det första mötet skulle uppfattas som givande. Fynden i studien är preliminära av två skäl. Dels finns få eller inga studier att jämföra med; dels var antalet intervjuer begränsat.

Introduction: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test is a widely used test for measuring aspects of social cognition. The aim of the present study was to provide results from a group of typically developing Swedish children (age 9-12) and to compare these results with children and adults in other Swedish and English studies, as well as results from a group of children with Asperger syndrome. Method: A Swedish version of the child version of the test was completed by 83 controls and by six children with Asperger syndrome. Results were compared between the two groups and with data from other studies. Results: The children in the current study did not differ on scores compared to children in the same age group in other studies. The children in the current study scored significantly lower than adults in an earlier study. The results from the children with Asperger syndrome did not differ significantly to the results from the controls.