I denna uppsats undersöker jag relationen mellan känsla av sammanhang (KASAM) och styrkan i den religiösa tron (SCSORF) genom en enkätundersökning genomförd utifrån ett bekvämt urval. Resultatet från undersökningen visade att ingen korrelation föreligger mellan KASAM och SCSORF och att styrkan i den religiösa tron därför inte kan antas påverka KASAM. Dock innebär urvalsmetoden och storleken på urvalet (n = 22) att denna slutsats är osäker och att en större undersökning med bättre forskningsdesign behövs för att slutligen kunna fastställa om styrkan i den religiösa tron påverkar KASAM.

Stress is part of everyday life and in the working conditions of the social services in Sweden. Thus each and every person has resources and strategies to cope with those stressors that construct the assumption of stress. The aim of this study was to understand how persons in leading positions of the LSS of Social Services in Kalmar experience and cope with stressors in their leadership and organization and to investigate what factors during working and non-working hours promote health. Influenced by the theoretical approach of Aaron Antonovsky´s Sense of Coherence seven qualitative interviews were conducted with persons in leading positions. They were asked about stressors, coping strategies, resources and health promoting factors that help to cope with stressors. The interviewees stated that stressors like unclear role description and heavy workload are among others a major part of the role as leader. They also stated that the role as a leader was more desirable than being a chief. Coping strategies were found to help control the daily stressors. Factors during working and non-working hours which promote health were found to be important as a factor to gain energy, relaxation and meaningfulness.

The aim of this study has been to create an understanding for the situation of an often forgotten group in foster care, the carers’ own children. Our main focus has been the experience this group has of foster care, their experience of participation in caring for the foster children and their possible need of support and help. Our chosen method has been qualitative interviews with six adult children of foster carers, two men and four women. The theory used in this study has been Sense of Coherence. Our interviewees gave mainly a positive description of being part of a foster family even though they could give examples of difficult situation and of loss. All of them gave different examples of how they had participated in the care of foster children, such as babysitting, defending foster siblings in school and supporting them. Despite their over all positive memories most of them wished they had been offered better support, preferably counseling with advice on how to act in difficult situations. A main focus for the interviewees seemed to be the need for better information as well as education about why the foster children act as they do.

Syftet med denna studie var att utvärdera Perrongen, en insats med kvalificerade kontaktpersoner för ungdomar i riskzonen för missbruk eller social problematik, och följa upp de ungdomar som medverkat i insatsen. 8 ungdomar deltog i den kvalitativa studien, och intervjuades under ungefär en timme vardera om deras bakgrund, insatstid och om livet efter insatsen med utgångs-punkt i ungdomarnas familj och nätverk. Resultatet var övervägande positivt, och samtliga ungdomar lever idag ett, i olika grader, betydligt mer hälsosamt liv än vid perioden för insatsen. / The aim with the present study was to do an evaluation of Perrongen, a program containing qualified mentors regarding youths being in the danger zone of getting addicted to alcohol and drugs or having problems in their social life, and do a follow-up on the youths taking part in the program. 8 youths took part in the qualitative study, and was interviewed for about an hour each about their background, the time of, and life after, the program with my premise being the family and network of the youths. The results were mainly positive, and all of the participating youths are today living a, on different levels, much healthier life then by the time of the program.

En förutsättning för att undvika depression och istället uppleva posttraumatiskt växande (PTG), efter att ha upplevt belastande livshändelser, kan vara känslan av sammanhang (KASAM). Denna studie syftar till att undersöka om det finns en skillnad mellan belastande livshändelser avseende negativa utfallet depression samt undersöka om en stark KASAM kan vara avgörande för att individen istället utvecklar PTG. I studien undersöks 150 studerande vid Örebro universitet. Av resultatet framgår det att studenterna med högt värde av belastande livshändelser är mer deprimerade än studenterna med lågt värde, oberoende av KASAM. Dock hittades ingen signifikant skillnad mellan belastande livshändelser och KASAM avseende PTG.Huruvida belastande händelser utvecklar en positiv eller negativ förändring hos individen kan istället avgöras av personens tolkning, hantering av situationen. / A basis to avoid depression and instead experience posttraumatic growth (PTG), after stressful life events, may be a sense of coherence (SOC). This study investigates whether there is a difference between stressful life events regarding the negative outcome depression and to examine whether a strong sense of coherence can be essential to develop PTG instead. 150 students at Örebro University were examined. The result showed that students with high value of stressful life events are more depressed than students with low value, independent of SOC. However, no significant difference was found between stressful life events and SOC regarding to PTG.Whether a stressful event develops a positive or negative change in the individual may instead be determined by how the person interprets and handles the situation.

InSwedenhaving a high degree of intelligence is controversial and giftedness is not always seen as an asset.  Twenty-four gifted adolescents from the high-IQ organization MensaSwedenresponded to questions about their sense of coherence as well as to open-ended questions about how their intelligence affected their lives in the contexts of school, friends, and family.  A thematic analysis of the open-ended questions was performed.  Most of the participants wrote about school being under-stimulating and not fitting them.  In the cases where school was seen as stimulating, this was due to individual teachers or school systems other than the traditional Swedish school.  In the context of friends, the adolescents felt support and viewed their friends as an important part of their lives, although good friends were hard to find, especially before secondary school.  Like friends, the family was mostly seen as a positive context where the adolescents could find support.  A majority of the participants felt they had trouble fitting in with people in general, with the exceptions of close friends and family.  The implications of these results are that the Swedish school system needs to be more flexible and that despite school being seen as negative in many cases, friends and family act as buffers to promote adolescents' well-being.

Purpose: Our aim is to get an insight on how home care workers experience, handle and looks upon their work. We also want to form an opinion of how home care workers experience the relationship to the clients they meet. Questions: How does home care workers experience their daily work with their clients? Home care workers daily meet many different sorts of clients with different needs, how do they handle this? What kind of support does home care workers get in their work? Method: A qualitative design with semistructured interviews. Conclusion: The most central conclusion from all of our interviews were: that home care service workers has a very stressful and demanding occupation, that the work has a low status, that the personnel has a big responsibility for the wellbeing of other people and that they often find their work satisfying and fun. To have someone to talk to and exchange ideas with was also mentioned by the informants as a vital part of feeling support in their work. From the Antonovskys theory, a sense of coherence, and Goffmans views of the society, we also find that the larger part of our informants feel a high sense of coherence and that when they have to adjust to their different caretakers they play different roles.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between gender and self reported symptoms (physiological and psychological) and sense of coherence (SOC) and Job Demand-Control-Social support (JDCS). The sample consisted of 360 respondents (nfemale= 261, nmale= 99), in the ages between 19-53 (M=25,57, SD=5,77), all students from Växjö University. A quantitative work method was used in the study; data was collected using questionnaires that consisted of self-reported questions, based on three parts: A modified symptom checklist, SOC 13 and a modified JDCS questionnaire. The result of our study showed that both SOC and JDCS had an effect on self-reported symptoms but there were no interaction between SOC and JDCS. No significant gender differences were found regarding the level of SOC. Female students reported symptoms in a significant higher extent than male students. There were no gender differences regarding JDCS. Our results are discussed in relation to previous studies. Our conclusion is that it is important to perform further research on students’ health and work environment.

Bakgrund Uppföljning av utskrivna patienter inom intensivvård har utvecklats under de senaste decennierna, där fokus varit patienternas återhämtning och upplevelse av intensivvårdstiden. Huruvida sjukvårdspersonal har behov av uppföljning har varit oklart. Därför var syftet med denna studie att undersöka intensivvårdssjuksköterskors behov av uppföljning av utskrivna patienter och behovets relation till känsla av sammanhang (KASAM).   Metod En tvådelad enkät, med fokus på behov av uppföljning och KASAM, delades ut till intensivvårdssjuksköterskor vid sex intensivvårdsavdelningar i Västra Götaland under våren 2011.   Resultat Av 216 distribuerade enkäter returnerades 143 (66,2 %). Drygt 80 % av intensivvårdssjuksköterskorna skattade sig ha ett behov. Det fanns ingen skillnad i personliga faktorer (ålder, kön, erfarenhet, KASAM) mellan de med behovet och de utan. Vanligaste sätten att följa upp på var att besöka patienten, kontakta patientens sjuksköterska och att läsa i patientens journal. De vanligaste orsaker till behovet av uppföljning var feedback på utförda åtgärder samt av empati för patienten. Knappt 12 % såg nackdelar med att följa upp, medan drygt 67 % såg nackdelar med att inte följa upp.   Konklusion Intensivvårdssjuksköterskor har ett behov av att följa upp utskrivna patienter. Detta behov kan vara knutet till sjuksköterskans profession, snarare än till sjuksköterskans personliga egenskaper. Orsaken till behovet kan ses som två huvudsyften; verksamhetens lärande och patientens förståelse. / Background Follow-up on discharged patients in intensive care has emerged in the last decades. Focus has been patient recovery and experiences from the intensive care units (ICU). It is however unknown whether health care workers have a need of follow-up on discharged patients. Hence, the aim of this study was to survey ICU-nurses need of follow-up on discharged patients and the correlation to sense of coherence (SOC).   Method A two-parted questionnaire, with focus on the need of follow-up and SOC, was distributed to ICU-nurses at six ICU’s in the west ofSwedenin 2011.   Result A total of 216 questionnaires were distributed, and 143 was returned (66.2%). Approximately 80% of the ICU-nurses indicated that they had a need of following up on discharged patients. No personal attribute (age, gender, working experience, SOC) differed between those with a need and those without a need. The most common way of practically follow-up on patients was by visiting the patient, contacting the patient’s nurse, and by reading the patient’s electronical journal. The general reason for the need of follow-up was to gain feedback on the preformed interventions (nursing and medical), and by empathy for the patient. Almost 12% of the ICU-nurses emphasized disadvantages by following-up on discharged patients. But just over 67% experienced disadvantages with not performing follow-up on discharged patients.   Conclusion There is a need among ICU-nurse to follow-up discharged patients. This need could be connected to the nursing profession, rather than the nurses’ personal attributes. The reason of the need of follow-up could be interpreted as two main objectives; Organizational learning and Patient understanding.

The aim of this study was to provide an understanding of the situation of an often forgotten group in foster care, the carers’ own children. Our main focus was to explore this group’s experience of foster care, their experience of participating in caring for the foster children and their possible need of support and help. Our chosen method was qualitative interviews with six adult children of foster carers, two men and four women. The theory used in this study was Sense of Coherence. Our interviewees mainly gave a positive description of being part of a foster family, however they also gave examples of difficult situations and of loss. All of them gave different examples of how they had participated in the care of foster children, such as babysitting, defending foster siblings in school and supporting them. Despite their overall positive memories most of them wished they had been offered better support, preferably counseling with advice on how to act in difficult situations. The need for better information, as well as education about why the foster children act as they do, seemed important to the interviewees.