SAMMANFATTNING Bakgrund: Enligt WHO begås årligen cirka 800 000 självmord av människor världen över. I Sverige år 2012 begick 1151 personer suicid. Att förlora ett barn kan medföra en försämrad psykisk hälsa som följd. Studien har vårdvetenskapen som teoretisk referensram med fokus på hälsa, lidande och människan både som individ och del av en helhet. Syfte: Syftet är att beskriva upplevelsen av psykisk hälsa hos föräldrar vars barn genomfört suicid. Metod: Systematisk litteraturstudium med latent innehållsanalys av sex kvalitativa och två kvantitativa artiklar. Resultat: Resultatet presenteras i tre teman: Den utlämnade människan, den lidande människan och den förnyande människan. Frekvent förekom känslor av skuld, maktlöshet, utanförskap och svårigheter att gå vidare i livet, självdestruktiva tankar och handlingar, ångest, depression och sorg. Även glimtar där föräldrar lyckats finna hopp, tröst och stöd återfinns i resultatet. Konklusion: Föräldrar som förlorat ett barn genom suicid upplever i stor utsträckning försämrad psykisk hälsa. Resultatet visade att över tid förbättrades den psykiska hälsan hos flera föräldrar. Somliga hjälps av att ha stöd av andra, andra av att ge stöd medan ytterligare andra behövde stillhet och avskildhet. Den stora variation som resultatet uppvisar indikerar att ett individbaserat bemötande behöver praktiseras.

Using a risk and resilience theoretical framework, the present study examined the influence of parental divorce during childhood on father-child relationship quality in young adulthood. This relationship quality was measured using nurturant fathering and modified father involvement scales, and self-reports of current amount of face-to-face and verbal father-child contacts. Comparisons on these measures were made between 107 young adults from intact and 96 from divorced family backgrounds. The divorce group was also examined in isolation to explore how divorce-related factors, including structural, early contact, and interparental relationship factors. predict young adults' perceptions of their father-child relationship. Results show young adults from intact family backgrounds to report a comparatively stronger father-child relationship. Among divorce group participants, structural factors (higher father SES and joint custody) and early contact (greater percentage of time spent with father post-divorce) were predictors of higher scores on combined nurturant fathering and involvement measures. Greater early contact and stronger interparental relationship factors (low conflict and high contact and cooperativeness) similarly predicted current contact.

This study explores fatherhood in contemporary Canadian society by drawing on the experiences of nine full-time care-giving fathers in Vancouver, Canada. Using a social constructionist epistemology, the study explored how fathers who are primary caregivers to their young children construct masculinity, how they enact primary care-giving, and how they can be better supported within communities. Fathers were recruited through posters in community centres and through snowball sampling and volunteered to participate in interviews lasting between one and three hours. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed and analysed using pragmatic thematic analysis. Three key themes were constructed to represent the fathers’ self-reported experiences: fathers’ enactment of primary care-giving; fathers’ constructions of masculinity within dominant discourses of masculinity and care; and father’s support needs. Findings suggest that for these primary care-giving fathers, care-giving is active and adventurous, and egalitarian beliefs and roles regarding child care and domestic responsibility predominate within their co-parenting relationship. Traditional Euro-western masculine ideology tends to give way to a “hybrid” ideology that emphasizes affection, emotional intelligence, and caring for one’s family as a whole. Fathers indicated a preference for supports that are self-sought such as the internet and support from partners, and informal supports such as community events and time with peers to structured supports provided by community programs. Fathers who reported benefits from formal community programs offered insight into father-friendly practices. Stigma about primary care-giving by fathers was a significant theme constructed from the data. Implications for community programs for families and primary care-giving fathers in particular are discussed. / Graduate

Study 1 examined the role closeness to father plays in the developmental-like process associating family form (divorced/non-divorced) with later young adulthood attachment style in a sample of 525 men and women. Participants reported their closeness to father while growing up and current comfort with closeness. As expected, closeness to father fully mediated the association between family form and comfort with closeness for both men and women, but more strongly for women. The association between family form and comfort with closeness was only evident for women; women who experienced parental divorce reported feeling less comfortable with closeness in relationships. Contrary to expectation, the mediating role of closeness to father in the association between family and form and comfort with closeness was not moderated by gender. The key role fathers may play in fostering their male and female children’s later attachment style in divorced and nondivorced families, as well as the attenuated role of gender in explaining young adults’ attachment style, are discussed. Study 2 examined the role of dyadic and family environment factors which are implicated in young adults’ insecure attachment in predicting relational resilience. Relationally resilient women were defined as women who experienced parental divorce yet experience comfort with closeness. Ninety-three women reported on the level of overt and subtle conflict in their families-of- origin, the effectiveness of their parents’ coparenting, and their closeness to father. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses predicted membership in the relationally resilient group based on these dyadic and family environment predictors. As expected, results demonstrate that lower pre-divorce subtle and overt conflict; higher levels of coparenting before separation, during separation, and after separation; and closeness to father while growing up all predicted membership in the relationally resilient group. However, no one variable uniquely predicted membership in the relationally resilient group. Study 2’s results are translated to preventative implications at the family, parental, dyadic and individual levels. Final remarks integrating the results of both studies follow. / Graduate

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-110). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-110). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-77).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p.48-50).