Memoire pour l'obtention de la licence es-sciences anthropologiques - 1968.

Revised thesis (Ph.D.)--Cambridge University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-164) and index.

Bakgrund: Fenomenet ensamhet är ett begrepp som har olika betydelser för olika människor men den ofrivilliga ensamheten innebär, oavsett känsla, ett utanförskap och brist på sammanhang. Tidigare forskning har haft stort fokus på äldre men på grund av att ofrivilligt ensam ter sig kunna leda till permanent psykiskt lidande under människans hela livslopp har dagens forskning riktat större fokus på de unga vuxna. Ensamhet som begrepp förknippas som negativt och ett pinsamt tillstånd med stor komplexitet och många unga vuxna uppfattar lida i det tysta. Ensamhet kan utifrån livsvärldsperspektivet vara social, emotionell eller existentiell. Syfte: Syftet är att beskriva unga vuxnas upplevelser och hantering av ofrivillig ensamhet i samband med psykisk ohälsa.  Metod: En litteraturstudie med systematiskt tillvägagångssätt i samstämmighet med Bettany-Saltikov och McSherry (2016). Resultatet baseras på analysen av tretton kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultat: Dataanalysen resulterade i tre teman och åtta subteman som bildade studiens resultat. Resultatet bygger på de beskrivningar och upplevelser som insamlats från befintlig empiri gällande ofrivillig ensamhet hos unga vuxna i samband med psykisk ohälsa. Utifrån denna data kunde deras upplevelse kategoriseras och beskrivas och de bildade åtta subtema som sedan slutgiltligen mynnade ut i de tre tema; Negativa tankar och känslor, sociala faktorers påverkan samt förutsättningar och copingstrategier som visat sig vara centrala och inverka ömsesidigt på deras upplevelse av ensamhet och psykiska ohälsa. Slutsats: Det finns flera olika faktorer till upplevelser av ofrivillig ensamhet hos unga vuxna. Författarna kan se ett komplext samband mellan psykisk ohälsa och ensamhet. Bland annat en negativ spiral där både inre- och yttre faktorer tillsammans med individens förutsättningar har en avgörande roll för hur problematiken utvecklas. Denna studie skulle kunna vara utgångspunkten för fortsatt kvalitativ forskning och på vilka preventiva insatser som skulle kunna leda till minskad ensamhet och psykisk ohälsa hos unga vuxna. / Background: The phenomenon of loneliness is a concept that has different meanings for different people, but loneliness means regardless of feeling, an exclusion and lack of context. Previous research has focused heavily on the aged people, but due to the fact that loneliness can lead to permanent mental suffering throughout a person’s lifetime today´s research has focused more on young adults. Loneliness as a concept is associated as negative and an embarrassing condition with great complexity and many young adults perceive suffering in silence. Loneliness can, from the lifeworld-perspective, be social, emotional or existential. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe young adults' experience and coping strategies with involuntary loneliness in combination with mental illness.  Method: A qualitative literature study with a systematic approach in accordance with Bettany-Saltikov and McSherry (2016). The result is based on an analysis of thirteen qualitative, scientific articles. Results: The data analysis resulted in three themes and eight sub-themes that formed the study’s results. The results are based on the description and experiences collected from existing empirical evidence regarding involuntary loneliness in young adults in connection with mental illness. Based on this data, their experience could be categorized and described, and they formed eight sub-themes which then finally resulted in the themes; negative feelings and thoughts, the influence of social factors and conditions and coping strategies that have been shown to mutually affect their experience of loneliness and mental illness.  Conclusion: There are several different factors to experiences of involuntary loneliness in young adults. The authors can see a complex relationship between mental illness and loneliness. Among other things, a negative spiral where both internal and external factors together with the individual’s conditions have a decisive role in how the problem develops. This qualitative study could inspire others to continue qualitative research and preventive measures could lead to reduced loneliness and mental illness in young adults.

The aim of this doctoral thesis is to – from a child perspective and with children as informants – describe and analyze childhood conditions for children whose parents suffer from severe mental illness. The method used is qualitative – 28 children, 10 boys and 18 girls, 7–18 years old, were interviewed about their parents’ mental disorder; the family situation and their own personal life – in school and during free time. The analyses are based on Sociology of Childhood and Family Sociology. Previous studies have, to a great extent, focused on the risk the children run of developing mental health- and social problems and what helps them to grow up healthy. The increased risk of mental health- and social problems has been well confirmed, but also that preventive interventions can contribute to resilience in the children. Although some studies have explored children’s experiences of their parents’ mental illness and the challenges they meet, research from a childhood perspective, has so far been scarce. The results of this study reveal different degrees of emotional, physical and social exposure for the children. Their childhood conditions were related to gender, relations, communication, problem load and social situation of the family. If the parent with a mental illness was a woman, the situation for the child was often more exposed than if it was the father – most likely due to parental roles and expectations on men and women in the Swedish society at that time. Girls seemed more emotionally involved in the parents’ problems than boys, especially if the parent with a mental illness was a father. Most of the parents were divorced or had never lived together. Parental conflicts complicated the life of the children, who were expected to have maintained relationships to both parents. Lack of communication about the parent’s mental disorder in - and outside the family - was common. The children were often uninformed about the parent’s problems.  If hindered to pass information between and outside their two homes, they were left to handle difficult, sometimes dangerous, situations with the mentally ill parent, alone. The home was not always the safe place for rest and recovery, as homes are expected to be. The heavier the total problem load of the family, the more exposed was the child. Most exposed were children whose both parents had severe problems – mental illness or addiction. They were often placed in out of home care, for longer or shorter periods. The kind and degree of exposure the children experienced varied. Four kinds of childhood sceneries could be recognized: (1) the well organized childhood, where the parent’s mental health problem was mainly an emotional burden for the children; (2) the complicated childhood, where the parents conflicts and inability to protect the child made the child either too involved or too lonely in handling the problems that the parent’s mental illness caused them; (3) the problematic childhood where the parent’s mental illness was not the only problem in the family, but factors like the other parent’s drinking, siblings’ problems, social and economical difficulties added to the burden and (4) the exposed childhood where none of the parents was able to take care of the child. Knowledge and openness, about the parents’ problems, seemed to increase competence and decrease feelings of guilt and responsibility for the parent. All of the children stood forward, not as passive victims, but as competent agents in their own lives – although often more or less powerless because of their dependence of their parents and other adults around them. It was clear, though, that there is a need for professionals in adult psychiatry, social services, school and preschool, to pay attention to the children of parents with mental health problems and see to that they get the information and support they need. Keywords: Children, childhood conditions, children as agents, parental mental illness/mental disorders, mental health knowledge, exposed life situations, competence.