The topic of this thesis concerns with working with parents of children in educational care center. Of children who absolved eight weeks long boarding stay at boarding ward of an educational care center. The children were accepted to the boarding stay based on their parents' request due to the children's problematic behavior. Qualitative research method was applied, and the chosen method of data collection was a semi-structured analysis, which was then split into two parts. The first part took place with a parent, when his or her child was starting his or her stay at the boarding educational care center. The second part, when the child's stay was over. Goal of the research was, based on parents' statements, to find out answers to the following questions: 1. What were the reasons for child's stay at educational boarding care center and what were the parents' expectations of this stay. 2. Possible factors influencing onset of problematic behavior. 3. Impact of parental groups. 4. Effect on parents' way of raising children after their absolving of parental groups sessions. 5. Potentials and limits of parental groups. The research shows that the most frequent reason for children staying at boarding educational care center was disrespect towards authorities and rules in general. Of their children the...

Bakgrund: Den nationella strategin för stärkt föräldraskapsstöd som beslutades av regeringen 2018 har som mål att öka kunskapen, tillgängligheten och antal aktörer som erbjuder föräldraskapsstöd till föräldrar för bland annat ett jämställt föräldraskap. Då covid-19 pandemin bröt ut i början på 2020 förändrades förutsättningarna att ge stöd drastiskt på grund av olika restriktioner i samhället. Samhället digitaliserades på flera områden och möjligheterna till socialt umgänge och att bygga sociala nätverk minskade. Syfte: Att kartlägga blivande föräldrars deltagande i och nöjdhet av föräldraskapsstöd under covid-19 pandemin. Metod: Tvärsnittsstudie med datainsamling genom webbenkät under sommaren 2022. Data presenterades med deskriptiv statistik. Resultat: Totalt 418 respondenter deltog i studien med regiontillhörighet från samtliga Sveriges regioner. Undersökningen omfattade 396 gravida och 22 partners under den undersökta perioden. Resultatet visade ett missnöje gällande information om tiden efter förlossningen, till exempel hur parrelationen förändras och om nedstämdhet efter förlossning. De vanligaste informationskällorna var barnmorskan, internet och det egna sociala nätverket. Majoriteten av respondenterna hade inte deltagit i någon föräldragrupp under graviditeten (76,3%). Resultatet visade att 56,5% upplevde föräldraskapsstödet som tillräckligt under graviditeten. Att veta vart blivande föräldrar kan vända sig vid frågor framkom som en viktig aspekt för att uppleva tillräckligt föräldraskapsstöd under graviditeten. Slutsats: Det är viktigt att föräldraskapsstödet är individanpassat. Digitalt föräldraskapsstöd kan fungera bra som ett komplement till det fysiska mötet. Föräldrar som vet vart de ska vända sig vid frågor är mer nöjda med erhållet föräldraskapsstöd under graviditeten. / Background: The national strategy for reinforced parental support was introduced by the Swedish government in 2018 with the goal to increase the knowledge, the accessibility and the number of actors that offer support to parents to insure equal parenting, among other things. The conditions for giving support changed drastically when the COVID-19 pandemic started at the beginning of 2020, due to several restrictions in society. The Swedish society was digitized in several areas and the opportunities to socialize and build social networks decreased.  Aim: The aim of the study was to map expectant parents’ participation in and satisfaction regarding parental support during the COVID-19 pandemic.   Method: A cross-sectional study with a web-based questionnaire was conducted in the summer of 2022. Data was presented with descriptive statistics.  Result: A total of 418 respondents participated in the study with participants from all regions of Sweden. The study included 396 pregnant and 22 partners during the studied period. The results showed a displeasure with the information about the time after the delivery, for example how the partner relationship changes and depressive symptoms after the delivery. The most commonly used sources of information for the respondents were the midwife, the Internet and their own social network. The majority of the respondents had not participated in any parental groups during their pregnancy (76.3%). The result showed that 56.5% felt that they had received sufficient support during their pregnancy. Knowing where to turn to with any questions related to their child or themselves as parents was an important aspect of their perception of whether or not they had been given enough support during their pregnancy.   Conclusion: It is important that the support is adaptable. Digital support may work well as a complement to the physical support. Knowing where to turn to is important in order to feel secure in one’s parental role.

När en kvinna får sitt första barn skapar hon en ny identitet som mamma. Hon ställs inför nya situationer vilket skapar en osäkerhet. Tidigare sociala sammanhang som till exempel arbete eller studier sätts på paus och även vänskapsrelationer kan genomgå en förändring. Känslor av ensamhet och oro leder till att individen söker sig till andra som har liknande upplevelser. Många kvinnor finner stöd i grupper som anordnas på Familjecentralen. Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att förstå kvinnors upplevelser kring sitt identitetsskapande under första tiden som förälder samt vilken betydelse sociala relationer med andra nyblivna föräldrar har för att öka trygghet och skapa mindre ensamhet i föräldrarollen. Studien har använt socialpsykologiska teorier kring exempelvis självet, kategorisering och social jämförelse för att tolka och förstå respondenternas upplevelser. I studien utfördes 10 semistrukturerade intervjuer med förstagångsmödrar om deras upplevelser kring att bli mamma. Studiens resultat visar hur mammaidentiteten växer fram och hur kvinnans tro på sin egen förmåga är kopplat till barnets välmående. Barnet blir en del av kvinnans självbild. I föräldragruppen upplever kvinnorna en gemenskap med andra i samma situation. Råd, stöd, tankar och upplevelser delas i ett öppet klimat vilket tillsammans med möjlighet att rådfråga personal leder till ökad trygghet och minskad känsla av ensamhet. / When a woman has her first child, she creates a new identity as a mother. She is faced with new situations, which creates uncertainty. Previous social contexts such as work or studies are put on hold and even friendships can undergo a change. Feelings of loneliness and anxiety lead the individual to seek out others who have similar experiences. Many women find support in groups organized at the Family Centre. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand womens´ experiences regarding their identity creation during the first time as a parent, as well as the importance of social relationships with other new parents to increase security and create less loneliness in the parental role. The study has used social psychological theories regarding, for example, the self, categorization and social comparison to interpret and understand the respondents' experiences. In the study, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with first-time mothers regarding their experiences of becoming a mother. The study's results show how the mother's identity develops and how the woman's belief in her own abilities is linked to the child's well-being. The child becomes part of the woman's self-image. In the parent group, the women experience a community with others in the same situation. Advice, support, thoughts and experiences are shared in an open climate, which together with the opportunity to consult staff leads to increased security and a reduced feeling of loneliness.

Many parents experience preterm birth as traumatic and develop high levels of emotional stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. This can have a negative impact on the bonding process and the development of their parental identity. The emotional support provided by the staff varies between Swedish neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), and little is known about parents´ needs and preferences for emotional support. Further, there are knowledge gaps regarding parental stress in fathers and their needs for emotional support, differences in stress between mothers and fathers, change of parental stress over time and potential predictors for parental stress. The aim of this thesis was to explore the needs and preferences for emotional support in parents of preterm infants during their infant’s hospitalisation in a NICU, and to describe parental stress in mothers and fathers up until the infant’s age of 12 months and predictors for parental stress.  Study I was a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 51 parents of preterm infants, which were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results showed that parents need a sense of coherence during their infant’s stay in a neonatal intensive care unit, and they want to be offered emotional support according to their preferences. Many parents preferred to attend professionally led parental groups as other NICU parents could really understand their situation and feelings. Parents also emphasised the value of combining parental groups with other means of support. Study II was a longitudinal cohort study in which data on self-reported parental stress during the first year were obtained from 493 mothers and 329 fathers of preterm infants and analysed using descriptive statistics, Student’s independent t-tests, linear regression, and linear mixed-effects modelling. The results showed that mothers perceived more role restriction than fathers, and that fathers experienced more social isolation than mothers. Further, parental stress decreased during the first year for mothers but increased for fathers, especially between 6 months and 12 months postpartum. For both mothers and fathers, having twins and a lower perceived general health were associated to higher levels of parental stress. In addition, mothers with infants of lower gestational age experienced significantly higher levels of parental stress.  In conclusion, individualised emotional support is important for parents of preterm infants for them to manage their situation both during their infant’s hospitalisation and during the first year postpartum. Apart from professional support, peer-support in the form of professionally led parental groups are perceived to be potentially valuable emotional support by parents. This peer-support could, preferably, be combined with other means of support during hospitalisation as ‘one size does not fit all’. In a next step, support interventions need to be designed, tested, and evaluated. Antonovsky’s theory of Sense of Coherence can be used to identify emotional needs in NICU parents and how to provide emotional support consistent with the parents’ preferences. After discharge from the NICU, vulnerable groups of parents, including parents of very preterm infants and twins need additional support. Moreover, there is a need in fathers for additional emotional support programmes offered during the first year of infants’ lives.