Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur socialsekreterare i några kommuner bedömer behovet av stöd för föräldrar med en lindrig utvecklingsstörning eller svagbegåvning. Vidare är syftet att undersöka vad socialsekreterarna upplever vara problematiskt vid dessa bedömningar, samt att inventera vad tidigare forskning säger på området. Forskningsöversikten kommer i uppsatsen att användas som analysverktyg. Som metod använder jag mig av en kvalitativ ansats i form av halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visar att alla de tre intervjuade socialsekreterarna gör en vanlig utredning. Utöver det anlitar socialsekreteraren i den andra kommunen ett utredningshem, där familjen bor under en längre tid och där särskilda bedömningsinstrument används. I den tredje kommunen gör socialsekreteraren en utredning i en utredningslägenhet, där familjen vistas dagtid under en längre tid, men utan särskilda bedömningsinstrument. Svårigheter som upplevdes var bland annat beroende av själva utvecklingsstörningen eller svagbegåvningen i sig, att föräldrarna kan ha svårt att se sitt eget behov av stöd. Bemötandet och risken att föräldern ska känna sig kränkt och om föräldern ska räcka över tid var också svårigheter som togs upp. Överlag upplevdes detta vara ett svårt område med svåra bedömningar. Slutsatsen är bland annat att, antagligen, på grund av det relativt lilla antalet föräldrar med utvecklingsstörning och svagbegåvning så har inte alla kommuner utarbetat särskilda bedömningsmetoder just för den här gruppen. Men detta skulle behövas eftersom forskning visat att rätt bedömning är viktigt för att kunna utforma adekvat stöd. Nyckelord: utvecklingsstörning, svagbegåvning, föräldraskap, bedömning, socialsekreterare. / Intellectual disability and parenthood -social welfare secretaries assessment of the need of support for parents with an intellectual disability, and the difficulties around these assessments The main purpose of this study is to examine how social welfare secretaries do their assessments of the need of support for parents with an intellectual disability, and what their experiences is about difficulties doing these assessments. The purpose is also to examine what earlier research says in the area. The research summary will be used for the analysis of the empirical data. The method used is a qualitative approach with semi structured interviews in three municipalities (A, B, C). The result shows that in all three examined municipalities (A, B, C) they do an ordinary investigation. In municipality B social welfare secretaries also use a special institutional flat where the family lives for a longer period of time and where special methods of assessment are used. In municipality C social welfare secretaries also use a special flat for purpose of investigation where the family stays day time for a longer period of time, but without using special methods of assessment. The result also shows that difficulties in doing these assessments depend for example on the intellectual disability in itself: parents not being able to understand their own need of support. It also shows difficulties in addressing the parents, without making them feel insulted. Generally the experiences of the interviewed social welfare secretaries is that it is a complicated area with complicated assessments. An important conclusion of this study is that, probably because of the relatively small numbers of parents with an intellectual disability, not all municipalities have developed special methods for this special group of people. But this will be needed, because as the research summary shows, a correct assessment by the social welfare secretary is necessary in order to be able to give adequate support. Key words: intellectual disability, parenthood, assessment, social welfare secretary

Avhandlingens övergripande syfte är att tolka och beskriva innebörder av stöd, utifrån att vara förälder till barn med funktionsnedsättning och att vara professionella stödjare. Datainsamling har skett i form av berättande intervjuer med 39 föräldrar (23 mödrar och 16 fäder) och 9 professionella (7 kvinnor, 2 män) från olika verksamheter. Samtliga intervjuer har analyserats med hjälp av fenomenologisk hermeneutisk metod. Innebörder av att vara förälder till barn med funktionsnedsättning (studie I) har tolkats som en medvetenhet om viktiga värden i livet. Barnet har ett inneboende värde som en unik person och föräldrarna strävar efter att göra sitt bästa för barnet. Denna strävan innebär att konfrontera oro, osäkerhet och rädsla i vården av barnet och andra personers nedvärdering av barnet. I föräldrarnas strävan att tillmötesgå barnets olika behov, ingår också att anpassa egna behov efter barnets. Den fördjupade förståelsen av studiens resultat är, att det handlar om en strävan att möjliggöra för barnet att leva ett gott liv. Innebörder av att få stöd av professionella (studie II) har tolkats som att föräldrar och barn blir bekräftade som värdefulla personer och att föräldrarna uppnår trygghet och kompetens i föräldraskapet och får ett hopp för barnets framtid. Erfarenheter av att inte få stöd, medför en kamp mot de professionella, för att kräva det stöd som föräldrarna anser att de och barnet behöver. Innebörder av att vara professionell stödjare (studie III), består av att ha personlig filosofi, som är integrerat i sättet att vara och handla som stödjare. Det innebär att vara trygg i hoppet om att det alltid går att göra något för att hjälpa, genom att söka unika lösningar i den aktuella situationen. Tillit till föräldrar som partners och att få deras tillit, samt att möjliggöra för föräldrarna att uppnå kompetens och trygghet i vården av sina barn är andra innebörder. Detta har tolkats som en frihet från att vara bunden av byråkrati och prestige och en möjlighet att vara äkta, följa sin filosofi och att vara i samklang med barn och föräldrar. Innebörder av informellt stöd (studie IV) har tolkats som en livsberikande gemenskap, där barnet, innefattas i kärleksfulla relationer med närstående och har en naturlig plats i samhället. Att som föräldrar kunna dela glädje, oro och sorg med andra personer och att få möjlighet att uppleva lättnad och spontanitet i det dagliga livet, är andra innebörder av informellt stöd. Helhetsförståelsen av de fyra studierna är, att stöd av professionella i sin tur är ett stöd i föräldrars etiska förpliktelse i deras strävan att möjliggöra för barnet att leva ett gott liv. Informellt stöd betyder att föräldrar och barn är inneslutna i trofasta och berikande relationer med andra. / The overarching aim of this thesis is to interpret and describe the meanings of support for parents from the context of being a parent of a child with disability. The data collection is based on narrative interviews with 39 parents (23 mothers and 16 fathers) and nine professionals (seven women and two men) from various areas in the health care system and local authority. A phenomenological hermeneutic method guided the text analyses. The meanings of being a parent of a child affected by disability (study I) have been interpreted as awareness about important values in life. The child has an intrinsic value as a unique person and the parents are striving to do their best for their child. This striving means confronting worries, unsafeness and fear in the care of the child and confronting other persons’ devaluation of the child. Adjusting the parents’ own needs to those of the child and orchestrating the child’s various needs are other meanings. The deepened understanding of the result of the study is that the parents are striving to enable the child a good life. Being supported by professionals (study II) means experiences of the child and oneself as being confirmed as valuable persons. Moreover, it enables parents to gain confidence and competence in their parenthood and hope for the child’s future. Experiences of lack of support give rise to a struggle against the professionals, aimed at getting the support the parents regard as necessary for their own and their child’s needs. The meanings of being a supporter (study III) were interpreted as being and acting according to a personal philosophy, which is integrated in the professional task, and believing that it is always possible to help by searching for unique solutions in the current situation. Trusting the parents as partners and enabling the parents to gain competence and confidence in the care of their children are further meanings. The deepened understanding of being a professional supporter is to be in tune with one’s philosophy and the child’s and parents’ needs. The meanings of informal support (study IV) were interpreted as experiences of being involved in true relationships with other persons. This enables the child and the parents to be in a life enriching togetherness. The interpreted whole of the studies is that being a parent of a child affected by disability means to strive for the fulfilment of the ethical obligation to enable the child to have a good life. To be supported by professionals means receiving help to fulfil the ethical obligation. Being a professional supporter means to be and act in accordance to the unique child and parent and the present situation. Informal support means to be involved in a natural human togetherness.

The aim in the study is to search for a deeper understanding of how parents experience a neurological diagnose of the child and how this affects the parenthood. Parenthood was seen in a systemtheoretical perspective as a social construction. The narrative method was used in two lifestory parentinterviews. The analysis was made from parenthood. The result formed stories about parenthood with children having neuropsyciatric functional disability who even came to be a woman’s struggle. Two stories became central, one about righteousness and commonship and one against diagnosis and network. The struggle for support and understanding from the surrounding network was central. There was also a fight between the network and the parent of the authority to decide the child’s normality. The parent and child early experience a segregation in society based on diagnose. Parents experienced insecurity and difficulties regarding dose and sideeffects in medication the child. The networks reception was central for the acceptance of diagnosis and for keeping the parentcompetence. The public debate of inherent or environment created doubt and insecurity. In the stories there was a tendency that the struggle went beside the child and parenthood and instead became a struggle for righteousness against society.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vikten av ett genetiskt föräldraskap hos par som genomgick infertilitetsbehandling i Sverige med donerade ägg eller spermier, samt att jämföra attityder till genetiskt föräldraskap mellan kvinnor och män samt personer med eller utan möjlighet till genetiskt föräldraskap. Denna delstudie ingår i ett större projekt som heter Långtidsuppföljning av IVF, ägg- och spermiedonation i Sverige. Den grupp som har undersökts i föreliggande studie är par som genomgått behandling med donerade ägg eller spermier under 2005-2006. Antalet recipienter i denna studie var 277 personer. Information har samlats in i form av enkäter. Resultatet visade tydligt att nästan alla deltagare instämmer i att föräldrar är de som lever med och tar hand om ett barn oavsett genetiskt släktskap. Resultatet visade inga signifikanta skillnader i attityder till genetiskt föräldraskap oavsett om deltagarna hade möjlighet till genetiskt föräldraskap eller inte. / The aim with this study was to find out how important it is with genetic parenthood for couples undergoing infertility treatment in Sweden with donated eggs or sperms, and to compare attitudes to genetic parenthood between women and men and between persons with or without possibility to genetic parenthood. The present study is included in a larger project called Long-term follow-up of IVF, oocyte - and sperm donation in Sweden. The group that has been examined in the present study are couples who underwent infertility treatment with donated eggs or sperms during 2005-2006. A total of 277 persons participated in the study. Information has been gathered with questionnaires. The results clearly showed that almost all participants agree that parents are those who live with and take care of a child independent of genetic relationship. The result did not show any significant differences in attitudes to genetic parenthood irrespective of whether the participants had possibility to genetic parenthood or not.

The object of this two years master's thesis has been to study a specific genre of personal archives by examiningthe archives of nine parents who have lost one or several infants. Using internet-based methods, (e-mail, Skypeand digital photographs), I have conducted qualitative research using a general interview guide technique. Usingresearch from archival theory as well as other fields, my material has been arranged and analysed according tothemes and recurring thoughts picked up from my informants during the interviews.My main theoretical aid has been that the role of parent who has lost a child is the starting point for the creationof the personal archives. Another important theory is my definition of the term “document” as not dependent onmedium and format, but on usage: if an object has been used as a part of an archive, it is a document. I also claimthat study of personal archives is a way to help the archival profession and Swedish archival theory to becomemore democratic and inclusive, since especially the former is mandated to reflect all of society's many manifestationsof culture and memory. The results show that the archives contain a large selection of documents in differentformats and mediums, but that they also have many similarities. This is an effect of the fact that the parentshave all had roughly the same document-creating contacts with their relatives and friends, the authorities and theother parts of society often involved in the events proceeding the child's birth and death (or sickness and death).The reasons to create and maintain a personal archive are to preserve the memories of events, people, places,thoughts and feelings associated with the child and whatever time the parents got to spend with him or her. By remembering,the parents are also confirming the child's existence and place within the family, and helping themselvesconfirm their newly acquired role as parents who have lost a child. The archives and their constituent partsare used as physical and psychological “linking objects”, to help the parents feel (at least temporary) closer totheir child by watching, touching or talking about the most important documents. These are often the ones displayedon special memory shelves, on family photo walls or in memory boxes. It follows that arrangement of thedocuments is based mostly on the emotional attachment of the parent to the individual document, and that destructionof records are extremely rare in the studied archives. Their growth diminished with time, but does notstop completely since the parents, other relatives and friends still create new documents, mostly to observe holidaysand anniversaries. Furthermore, the way the parents use their archives and its constituent parts change astime passes. Individual documents may also change their emotional and cultural significance to the parent, orgain additional ones. Some of the underlying factors behind these findings are my informants views on creating,keeping and destroying documents. They all express a need to “save everything”, and most also want to “documenteverything”. The latter, their wish to create new documents to complement the ones created primarily byothers and as a result of specific events and processes, comes from a feeling of not having enough documents inthe archives. It can also be the result of dissatisfaction with those that do exist. Finally, as is commonplace amongpersonal archives, the archives in my study have multiple record creators within the immediate family and outsideit, even though my informants are usually the main creators. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive,Library and Museum studies.

The study presented here concerns how parents and children in a small Swedish town deal with the processes of child-rearing and socialization. Changes in family life and child care since the 1950s and especially the adjustment to women's work outside family, day-care, school and leisure are described and analyzed. Data was collected mainly through qualitative interviews with mothers, fathers and the 12-13-year old child in 31 families. Some additional data from archives concerning local family policy and support has also been used. The results illuminate important changes in the conditions of family life and childcare since the 1950s. Foundation is more clearly emotions, not material conditions. Motherhood and fatherhood have become relativly symmetrical. Domestic life is characterized on the one hand by a relatively flat hierarchy between parents and children and an emotional emphasis on nearness and intimacy, and on the other hand by demands on the children to take care of themselves, at least to some extent, as neither of the parents can or want to serve the family on a full-time basis. Another major change is in the way the families relate to other child- rearing agents (i.e. daycare/preschool, school and organized leisure activities). They have in varying ways adapted to and made use of that these can impart other qualities to the child than those of the family. However, the relations are by no means uncomplicated. It appears that school dovetails rather badly with both the parents' demands and the prerequisites for contemporary family life whereas daycare and leisure activities are fairly or quite compatible. The conceptions of children and parenthood which appear in the study are about individualism, the primacy of emotions and a relative equality between the sexes and generations. In the conceptions of child-rearing the emphasis is on security, stimulation and versatility. The child should be treated with respect, both for what it is and what it can become, i.e. account is taken of its own nature as well as its prospects for the future. The parent should be sensitive, supportive and also (more or less) active or driving. This was interpreted as the families' pedagogical discourse, comprising with some variation both the middle-class and working-class families in the subject group. / digitalisering@umu

Objectives. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not the mainstream reproductive rights organization Planned Parenthood of the Atlanta Area (PPAA) considered reproductive justice issues typically advocated for by non-traditional reproductive rights organizations. Methods. This research was a qualitative content analysis of discourse internal to PPAA (meeting minutes) and discourse communicated to the public externally via print media channels. Results. A total of 105 documents were analyzed as part of this study: 57 meeting minutes and 48 press clippings. The analysis revealed that, internally, PPAA did consider reproductive justice issues but that this was not directly communicated to the public via print media channels. Most noticeably, press characterizations of PPAA were slanted too heavily on the organization’s proliferation of population control as a goal and did not give enough consideration to its consideration of racial diversity.

The growing cultural commodity of celebrity news and its increasing focus on celebrities' families is examined by this project to determine what consequence communications about celebrity pregnancy and parenthood have on readers most likely to identify with the stories – new mothers. While gossip magazines are not meant to provide parenting advice, their editorial focus on parenting may position celebrity parents as role models for audiences. Guided by theories of media effects, this project sought to understand why and how that might happen. Using narrative thematic analysis, two complementary data sets were analyzed: 36 issues sampled from the leading gossip magazines, People and Us Weekly, during 2007-2009, and five focus groups with recent mothers. Gossip magazines positively framed celebrity family life, idealizing the experience by avoiding talk of parenting's daily challenges. Resources such as nannies and personal trainers define celebrity parenting by affording celebrities, especially women, the ability to continue work while maintaining the identity of primary caregivers. A gendered act, consumption was intrinsically part of good celebrity parenting. Expectations for celebrity postpartum weight loss communicated that bigger bodies are a work-in-progress rather than an acceptable new body type. Fathers were visually depicted more often than in conventional parenting media, though these images similarly showed parents performing normative, gendered behaviors. Participants reported escapism as their main reason for reading gossip magazines and parasocial relationships existed with both liked and disliked celebrities. For liked celebrities, a parasocial dialectical tension emerged defining role models as both special and ordinary. For disliked celebrities, negative frames portrayed their parenting behavior as unacceptable and served as the strongest form of social learning from gossip magazines as readers internalized media criticism. Celebrity role models were selected based on feeling similar, serving as fantasy role models whose parenting lifestyles were simultaneously interpreted as aspirational and unattainable. Participants' social comparisons usually evaluated their own parenting experience as preferred to the demands and media environment faced by celebrities. Situations interpreted as incomparable attributed celebrities' success to external factors rather than internal characteristics. Overall, gossip magazines do provide parenting information that expands and impacts the real experience of mothers.

Previous family researchers have found that parents who share different demographic backgrounds construct unique parenting styles and beliefs. Although such studies contribute to understanding how parenthood is socially constructed, the information about how parents internalize cultural information and everyday experiences to raise children is missing in the extant literature. To fully comprehend the social construction of parenthood, the linkage between the mind and the behavior of parents within specific social structures needed to be studied. I thus conducted conjoint interviews with 24 Japanese couples and 24 American couples who were raising four-to-six year old daughters and sons to examine how culture and cognition produce parental philosophies and family relationships. By using cognitive sociology as a theoretical framework and grounded theory methods as a mode of analysis, I found that the parents’ construction of parenting beliefs and practices basically depended on how they thought about four analytically distinct relationships: (1) their relationship to their parents; (2) their relationship to their children; (3) their relationship to their marital partner; and (4) their relationship to other people in society. Although fathers and mothers in Japan and the United States talked in general about these four aspects, in the process of doing so they offered unique views on each aspect. Japanese parents tended to view their parents as role models, believe that children and parents teach and learn from each other, consider gender ideology to be the foundation of parental partnership, and rank understanding others' feelings as the most important skill for children. Thus, their parenting philosophies were manufactured through reciprocal relationships with other people. In contrast, American parents tended to want to become better parents than their own parents, prefer to influence and control their children’s lives, consider equality to be the foundation of their parental partnership, and encourage their children to become independent. Therefore, their parenting philosophies were manufactured through self motivation. Through the cross-national comparisons of parents’ cognitive processes, I also discuss: the levels of parental expectations and pressures; the issues around the gender relations within a family; and the roles of international parenting books in a globalizing world.

Förväntningar inför föräldrarollen och i vilken utsträckning som dessa infrias har betydelse för anpassningen till föräldraskapet och den nyblivna förälders hälsa. Studiens fokus var oväntade upplevelser i föräldrarollen och hur dessa står i relation till tankar och förväntningar inför rollen. Fyra heterosexuella par som fått sitt första barn för mellan fem månader och två år sedan intervjuades i studien. Det semi-strukturerade intervjuerna transkriberades för att sedan menings-koncentreras och tematiseras. Meningskoncentreringen resulterade i fyra huvudteman: Tid, Prestation, Relationen till barnet och Relationen till andra. Upplevelsen av föräldrarollen kan utifrån studien anses vara kopplad till hur väl deltagarna upplever att de kunde tillgodose barnets behov. Resultatet är trovärdigt utifrån att deltagarna med egna ord kunnat beskriva sin upplevelse av fenomenet, dock har inga generaliseringar gjorts. Ett förslag till fortsatt forskning är att studera likheter och skillnader i förväntningar inför första och andra barnet.