The dissertation analyses access to welfare resources within the areas of schooling, leisure and peer relations for youth in out of home care. The study was conducted in three counties in mid Sweden and is a replication of the recurrent Swedish surveys of living condition of children in general populations. By using the same design, children aged 13–18 (n=272) in foster care and residential care were approached. Throughout the analysis results are compared with conditions for peers living at home, based on data from the 2004/2005 survey on living conditions for children (Child-ULF). Furthermore the results are linked to the young people’s experience of psychosomatic complaints and emotional wellbeing and discussed within the theoretical framework of childhood sociology. Questions regarding society’s ability to convey resources to youth while in care as well as young persons’ potential to exercise determination while in care are also discussed. The study shows that youth in care in general have access to fewer resources than those in general populations in the studied areas. For youth in residential care the differences compared to peers living at home are substantial, while conditions for youth in foster care are more alike those of young people in general. Youth in residential care have fewer school related resources and fewer contacts with friends than peers living at home. Youth in foster and residential care are more subjected to bullying than the general population. The overall conclusions are that society, in the form of foster parents and residential staff fails in certain areas to convey resources to youth in care. The young people’s lack of resources poses limitations to their potential to exercise self-determination while in care. The study points out areas where targeted efforts might be needed to improve the living conditions for youth in out of home care and perhaps broaden their potential to exercise self-determination while in care as well as after. / Välfärd i samhällsvården? En levnadsnivåundersökning av barn och ungdomar i socialtjänstens dygnsvård

The aim of our study is to gain increased knowledge and understanding of how young people who has been sentenced to closed institutional care experience their own possibility to participate and influence the transition and aftercare, and which, if any, importance they believe this has for their readjustment to society. The study is based on a qualitative method. The data consist of interviews with four young persons, of which three, at the time for our interviews, where in the transitionphase, and one had left the institution a few years ago. The study’s theoretical framework is based on Erving Goffmans theory about stigma and the empowerment theory. We have also used earlier studies within the area to understand and interpret our data. The result indicates deficits in terms of the young people’s possibility to participate and influence the planning and implemantation of the transition from the special home of closed institutional youth care.  The youths express a wish to be more involved and be able to influence more, yet at the same time there seems to be an acceptance among the youths concerning the fact that they are not given the possibility to participate, which can be related to a view of themselves as less worthy.

Avhandlingens syfte är att fördjupa kunskapen om skolsituationen för barn och ungdomar i samhällsvård samt att fördjupa kunskapen om de processer varigenom de unga finner vägar genom skolan och samhällsvården mot ett självständigt liv som unga vuxna. Studien har genomförts i fem svenska storstadskommuner. Materialet består huvudsakligen av upprepade intervjuer med unga som själva har erfarenhet av att vara placerade i samhällsvård. Som en bakgrund genomfördes en kartläggande aktstudie gällande alla de ungdomar från dessa kommuner, som under 2003 hade placerats i samhällsvård. Intervjudeltagarna valdes ut från denna kartläggning. I analysen av intervjuerna användes en narrativ livsberättelseansats. Fokus i analysen har riktats både mot att förstå de ungas erfarenheter av att leva i skola och samhällsvård och mot att förstå hur de unga, genom sina berättelser, tolkar dessa erfarenheter och på så sätt skapar en meningsfull berättelse om sig själva och sina liv. Resultatet visar att livet i samhällsvård för de unga är präglat av utsatthet på flera nivåer. Socialtjänstakterna pekar mot ett samband mellan svårigheter i hemmet och svårigheter i skolan för de ungdomar som placerades i samhällsvård. Livsberättelserna synliggör hur skolan, familjen och samhällsvården utgör en komplex helhet i de ungas vardag och hur utsatthet inom någon av dessa praktiker därmed tenderar att spridas vidare i en process av överförd utsatthet. I sin kamp för att undkomma denna utsatthet navigerar de unga mot arenor där de kan finna hemmatillhörighet, det vill säga en upplevelse av att förstå och ”höra hemma” i en socialt delad vardagsverklighet. Ett viktigt redskap i de ungas strävan efter hemmatillhörighet är deras förståelsearbete, det vill säga det kontinuerliga tolkningsarbete varigenom de – inom ramen för socialt delade hemmatillhörigheter – knyter ihop sina erfarenheter till en sammanhängande förståelse av sig själva och sina liv. / The aim of this thesis is to gain further knowledge about the school situation for children and youths in out-of-home care; about the processes by which these children and youths find their way through family life, school and care settings; and about their transitions from out-of-home care to an independent life as young adults. The study was conducted in five municipalities in Sweden. The main empirical data was generated through repeated interviews with young people who had the experience of staying in out-of-home care. As a background social services case files concerning all youths from the five municipalities, who during 2003 were placed in out-of-home care, were analysed. The interviewees were selected from this overview. In the analysis of the interviews a narrative life story perspective was used. Focus was directed both towards the understanding of the young people’s school and in-care experiences and at the understanding of how they, through their narratives, interpret these experiences and create a coherent story of meaning about themselves and their lives. The result indicates that life for young people placed in out-of-home care is characterized by vulnerability and exposure on several levels. The case files indicate that there is a connection between the degree of difficulties at home and in school for youths placed in out-of-home care. The life stories show that school, home and care settings, for the youths seem to represent a complex pattern of everyday practices in which their vulnerability tend to spread in a process of transferred exposure. In their struggle to avoid this exposure they strive to find spaces that provide them with a sense of belonging. An important tool in this struggle is their comprehension work, that is to say the continuous interpretive work by which they connect their experiences into a meaningful understanding of whom they are and which life they ought to live.