The neighbourhood is an essential arena for adolescents’ health development and research suggests that perceived neighbourhood insecurity (PNI) is associated with socio-economic status and self-rated health. The present study explored the distribution of adolescents’ PNI and its association with psychosomatic health complaints across districts. It also examined gender differences and whether family socio-economic position, foreign background and previous exposure to crime could explain part of the association. Data came from classroom-surveys within Stockholm municipality’s 14 districts in 2010, 2012 and 2014 (n=10,291). Linear and logistic multilevel regression models were applied. Results showed that the average level of PNI varied considerably between districts and were strongly connected to its socio-demographic composition. However, individual characteristics in terms of family background and previous exposure to crime only explained a minor part of the variation in PNI across districts. Girls reported more insecurity than boys in all districts. Gender differences in PNI decreased in absolute numbers, but increased in relative numbers, as the overall ‘neighbourhood safety’ increased. Between-district differences in health were minor, but PNI was still a strong predictor of individual-level health, especially for boys. Furthermore, the predictive power of PNI on health was stronger in districts perceived as safer.

The overall purpose of this study was to examine organized youth sports in Sweden and the possible influences over time (2 years) on some of the intended socialisation effects in terms of children’s and adolescent’s self-esteem, perceived physical and social competence, self reported pro- and antisocial behaviours, self reported psychosomatic health, and use of alcohol and tobacco. In an attempt to capture some of the complex social interactions in sports, which undoubtedly leads to different socialisation experiences, an additional purpose of this study was to examine possible relations between children and adolescent athletes’ dispositional goal orientations (task and ego), perceived motivational climate in sports, perceived sport-specific competence, perceived prosocial coaching and presumptive psychosocial effect variables. This study’s theoretical framework was primarily based on previous works by Bronfenbrenner (1979, 1992, 1995, 2001), Bronfenbrenner and Morris (1998), Nicholls (1984, 1989) and Patriksson (1995). The design of the study was a three-occasion longitudinal multiple cohort design including elements of retrospective questions. Data was collected from pupils residing in schools situated in Western and Middle parts of Sweden. The sample was based on a randomly stratified sampling procedure and comprised of 1378 pupils in total (10-18 years) distributed in primary school, lower secondary school and upper secondary school. The answering rate was high (T1=85%; T2=80%; T3=80%), but wave non-response made it necessary to impute missing data values. In total 1212 respondents were included in the final analyses. The main results showed that sport socialisation effects on youth’s prosocial development in general were rather small, with some minor exception for perceived physical competence and smoking tobacco. Consequently the results challenge the public notion that participating in organized sport “builds character.” Results related to the specific sport environment, though showed that organized sports have the potential to act as a more positive socialisation arena. It is proposed that creating a mainly task-oriented motivational climate, and helping the individual to foster a balance between task- and ego-oriented goal orientations, will increase the probability that young athletes will perceive higher levels of competence. This will, in turn, enhance the chance that participation in organized sports will have a positive effect on youths’ psychosocial development.

Psychosomatic health, including sleep, is important for adolescent well-being and daily functioning. Sleep difficulties are more seldom studied per se and whether there is socio-demographic variation in sleep difficulties among adolescents in Sweden is less known. The overall aim of the present study was to examine the frequency and social distribution of sleep difficulties among adolescents in Sweden. The child supplements of the Survey of Living Conditions, a Swedish nationally representative sample of ages 10-18, from years 2002 and 2003 were used (n=2531). Information from adolescents was linked to information from parents in a cross-sectional study design. Based on logistic regression analyses, variation in sleep difficulties was present according to gender, age, family structure, family economy, parent’s unemployment and residential area. No systematic sleep inequality by social class was found in the present study. The main results showed that adolescent girls, older age groups of adolescents, adolescents living in reconstituted families, living in families with a lack of cash margin, having unemployed parents and living in big cities reported sleep difficulties to a greater extent. Social factors, together with biological, psychological and cultural factors interact in explaining the variation in sleep difficulties.

Family and school are the two major socialization agents for young people with important implications for their social, psychological and cognitive development. This thesis aimed to investigate the extent to which family conditions in terms of parental attachment and support (PAS) and school conditions in terms of participation and teacher support were associated with adolescents’ psychosomatic health. The thesis also explored whether school participation and support (SPS) could compensate for the potentially negative health implications of experiencing poor relational support at home. Association patterns according to gender and grade were also investigated. Data were derived from a classroom survey of all ninth and eleventh-grade students carried out in Stockholm 2006 (n=9,560). Results from linear regression analyses showed that both PAS and SPS were negatively associated with psychosomatic complaints. Gender and grade differences were also noted in respect to PAS and SPS as well as in the interaction between them. The study failed to find a compensatory function of school characteristics for less advantaged students, but modifying effects were nevertheless found. Students with a combination of high PAS and low SPS had worse health than expected, thus indicating that poor condition in school modifies the positive health effect of PAS in a negative way.

Aim: The aim of the study was to explore the association between school pressure and psychosomatic health complaints and the potentially moderating effect of physical activity in a Swedish cohort of adolescents.Method: Cross-sectional data from the Swedish Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey of 2017/2018 was used, with participants aged 11-15 (n=3,745). The exposure was school pressure, which was measured with one question. The outcome was psychosomatic complaints, with information on the frequency of eight complaints which was added to an index. Physical activity was measured with one question. Covariates were gender, grade, and family affluence. First, Cross-tabulations with Chi squared tests were performed to examine patterns related to the exposure variable, school pressure and the covariates as well, and one- way ANOVA was used to explore the bivariate association between school pressure and psychosomatic complaints. Next, linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between school pressure and psychosomatic health complaints, with adjusted models including age, gender, familial socioeconomic status, and physical activity. Moderation was examined with a multiplicative interaction term which was evaluated with a Wald test, as well as with a combined variable of both school pressure and physical activity.  Results: The results suggest that higher levels of school pressure were significantly associated with higher levels of psychosomatic health complaints. The association persisted even after the adjustment for covariates. The interaction analyses did not present any moderating effect of physical activity. However, the combined variable analysis showed indications of a buffering effect: for students in the high school pressure group, those with low physical activity had more psychosomatic health complaints than those with high physical activity, the difference being statistically significant.  Conclusion: This study helps further the knowledge on how adolescents’ experiences of school pressure is associated with psychosomatic health complaints and how physical activity can buffer against this association. Suggestions on future research and important study strengths and limitations were discussed.

While socioeconomic inequalities in health seem to level out during adolescence, circumstances related to school appears to have increased in importance. Such circumstances include, for example, school performance. The primary aim of this study is to examine the relationship between school performance and psychosomatic health. The moderating role of self-esteem and the presence of any sex differences will additionally be investigated. Data from the Stockholm School Survey in 2004, covering a total sample of 5 135 adolescents in 9th grade, were used. Based on linear regression, a significant association between school marks and psychosomatic health was found where higher school performance was linked to better health. Moreover, lower self-esteem was linked to more health complaints. Self-esteem moderated the association between school marks and psychosomatic health but only among boys, for whom the effect of having both high marks and high self-esteem was not as beneficial for health as expected. While differences by sex were found in the distribution of school marks, self-esteem and psychosomatic health, none were found in the associations between self-esteem and school performance and psychosomatic health (the only exception being the moderating role of self-esteem among boys).

Mental health problems have increased among adolescents in Sweden and research suggests that contextual matters could be of importance over and beyond individual socio-demographic characteristics. One such social context is school, where both the student composition of the school and its support can influence student health. This study explored the distribution of psychosomatic health complaints (PHC) and perceived teacher support (PTS) as well as the association between PTS and PHC, across school segregated profiles. It also examined gender differences in these distributions and associations. The study design was cross-sectional, and data came from classroom-surveys within Stockholm municipality of ninth grade students in 2014 (n=4904). Linear regression analyse was applied. Results showed that average levels of PHC varied across school segregation profiles for girls, while PTS varied for both gender. PTS was negatively associated with PHC for all students, while the strength of association varied across school profiles to the benefit of students in the most privileged schools. Gender differences in these associations was also observed. Conclusions were that school context, based on the student composition of the school, and its provided support was linked to psychosomatic health complaints among students in Stockholm and that gender played a role in understanding pathways in these associations.

Syftet med denna studie var att genom kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer ta reda på hur flickor med utländsk bakgrund kan uppleva ett specifikt fotbollsprojekt som syftar till att öka deltagandet bland flickor med invandrarbakgrund. Syftet var även att undersöka vilken betydelse projektet kan ha för dem. Sex flickor med utländsk bakgrund som deltar i det specifika fotbollsprojektet ingick i studien. Av resultatet framkom att flickorna upplever att projektet har haft en stor betydelse för deras självuppfattning. Projektet har gett dem nya möjligheter att lära sig spela fotboll, träffa nya kompisar samt att vara mer fysiskt aktiva. Det framgår även att flickornas motivation till att spela fotboll har stärkts samt att denna ökning av motivation i kombination med den stärkta självuppfattningen kan ha resulterat i att flickorna börjat ta plats i andra arenor som rasterna i skolan och klassfotbollen. / The purpose of this study was to look into how girls with foreign backgrounds can experience a specific football projects that aims to increase the participation in sports among girls with foreign backgrounds. The intention was also to examine what meaning the project can have for these girls. The study was conducted with qualitative interviews and a total of six girls from the specific project participated. The result from the interviews was that the girls experiences that the project has affected their self-concept in a good direction. The football project has given them new opportunities to learn how to play football, meet new friends and to be physically active. Their motivation to play football has also increased .The increase of motivation in combination with the strengthen self-concept may have resulted in the girl feeling confident and motivated enough to participate more in the school breaks and the “class football”.

The aim of this thesis is to explore methods for assessing peer victimization and pedagogical leadership in school. The thesis includes four studies. Study I and II are based on web-based questionnaires among 2, 568 students in grades 7, 8 and 9. Study III is based on a questionnaire (n=128) and four focus group interviews (n=21) among students in grades 7 and 9. Study IV is based on a web-based questionnaire including 344 teachers. The results from Study I showed that among students who experienced peer victimization 13% were captured by a bullying measure, 44% by a measure of repeated peer aggression, and 43% by both measures, i.e. the two measures captured partly different pupils. Study II showed that the two measures captured the same proportion of adolescents with psychosomatic problems and showed no significant differences in mean values on the Psychosomatic Problems (PSP) scale. In Study III it was shown that besides the traditional criteria the adolescents definition of bullying also included a criterion based on the health consequences of bullying. That is, a single but hurtful or harmful incident could also be considered bullying irrespective of whether the traditional criteria were fulfilled or not. The Rasch analysis in Study IV indicated two sub dimensions of the Pedagogical and Social Climate (PESOC-PLP) scale; direct pedagogical leadership and indirect pedagogical leadership. Satisfying psychometric properties indicated that the PESOC-PLP scale could be used to measure pedagogical leadership of the principal. This thesis highlights problems with how bullying and school leadership is currently defined and measured. By strengthening the understanding of measurement methods of peer victimization and school leadership the aim is that the results from this thesis will contribute in providing a safe and positive school experience for children and adolescence and that it can be used as a valuable tool to combat peer victimization. / Baksidestext: The negative consequences of peer victimization on children and adolescents such as worsening academic achievement and mental ill health are major public health concerns which have been subjected to extensive research. However, there are long-standing concerns how to define, measure, and estimate prevalence rates of peer victimization and successful school leadership. The aim of this thesis is to study methods for assessing peer victimization and pedagogical leadership in school. The results show that excluding other forms of peer victimization than bullying have serious implications for the identification of victims and may underestimate the full impact of peer victimization on children. Further, the validation of the Pedagogical and Social Climate (PESOC-PLP) scale is a step towards ensuring valid assessments of pedagogical school leadership. By strengthening the understanding of measurement methods of peer victimization and school leadership the aim is that the results from this thesis will contribute in providing a safe and positive school experience for children and adolescence and that it can be used as a valuable tool to combat peer victimization.