There are many children of Spanish-speaking origin in Sweden. However, for many of these bilinguals, Swedish is a dominant language compared to their heritage language (HL) Spanish because of its role in the social environment. The current thesis is a didactic study and the aim is to investigate the attitude of Spanish-speaking adolescents towards the Spanish language. We have evaluated the factors that contribute to conservation or attrition of the Spanish language and the opinions of the participants regarding the attitude of parents in order to understand how the participants develop their proficiency in Spanish as a heritage language. To better understand the phenomenon of Spanish as a heritage language in Sweden, we studied a group of Spanish-speaking adolescents aged 16-18 years. We used a mixed method approach to collect data using ten anonymous surveys and five individual interviews. For ethical reasons, the names of interviewees have been replaced by fictitious names. Using data obtained from anonymous surveys and individual interviews we answered the research questions: What factors are the most important, according to the adolescents, in order to keep the mother tongue? What do adolescents think about the attitude of parents towards their mother tongue? The interview responses match the data obtained from the surveys, noting that the most influential factor in maintaining the Spanish language was speaking the language. We have observed that the attitude of parents affects adolescents in their linguistic choices. Most adolescents felt that parents had a positive attitude towards the mother tongue. In cases when only Spanish was spoken at home (i.e. without mixing both languages) a higher level of Spanish proficiency was observed. Because of the sociocultural environment (dominated by Swedish), adolescents who were born in Sweden or who entered the country at an early age received more language input in the majority language and therefore, Swedish became the dominant language. We also noted that one of the participants had maintained a high level of proficiency in Spanish despite being born in Sweden.

Esta tesis contribuye a la literatura analizando los efectos causales que el estado de salud tiene sobre la participación laboral en la población en edad de trabajar. De este modo, analiza los efectos que un deterioro en el estado de salud tiene sobre la participación laboral del individuo, así como los efectos de proveer cuidados informales sobre la participación laboral femenina. El primer capítulo utiliza una aproximación empírica homogénea en nueve países europeos, lo que hace posible relacionar las diferencias encontradas con diferencias en el contexto institucional. El segundo capítulo analiza el papel que juega el estado de salud en las transiciones hacia y fuera del empleo. Los resultados muestran que el estado de salud general afecta simétricamente las entradas y salidas del empleo, mientras que cambios en el estado de salud mental sólo influyen el riesgo de abandonar el empleo. El tercer capítulo examina los efectos de varios tipos de cuidados informales en el comportamiento laboral femenino. Los resultados sugieren que los costes de oportunidad laborales aparecen en aquellas mujeres que conviven con la persona dependiente, al mismo tiempo que los efectos negativos surgen cuando se proveen cuidados informales por un período superior al año. / This thesis aims to contribute to the literature with an attempt to identify the causal effects of health on labour market outcomes in the working-age population. I analyse the effects of the onset of a health shock on the individuals' labour market outcomes, and also the effects of caregiving on female labour participation. The first chapter uses a homogeneous empirical framework to estimate the first set of effects on nine European countries, which allows me to relate the empirical estimates to differences in social security arrangements across these countries. The second chapter analyses the role of health in exits out of and entries into employment and the results show that general health affects symmetrically entries into and exits out of employment, but changes in mental health status influence only the hazard of non-employment for the stock sample of workers. The third chapter examines the effects of various types of informal care on female labour behaviour and the results suggest the existence of labour opportunity costs for those women who live with the dependent person they care for, and the negative effects appear when caregiving for more than a year.