Kring 27 miljoner av världens befolkning beräknas vara narkotikamissbrukare. I Sverige bor det cirka 100 000 barn under arton år i ett hushåll med en substansmissbrukande förälder. Detta är en kvalitativ litteraturstudie med syftet att uppmärksamma föräldrars upplevelser av att vara missbrukare och förälder. Studien visar att en prioritering som föräldrar med ett missbruk gör är att barnen skall vara ovetande om missbruket. Föräldrarna lever ett liv präglat av flera känslor bland dessa dominerar skuld och skam. Barnen ses däremot som en motivation till att sluta med missbruket och bli en bättre förälder. Svårigheter i vardagen för föräldrarna kan vara kampen i att ge barnen det nödvändiga emotionella stödet som behövs. För vissa föräldrar är det viktigare att förse sina barn med basala rutiner såsom påklädnad och matning. Flera föräldrar kämpar med kontrollen över barnen och hushållet, eftersom drogen kontrollerar dem. Slutligen upplever föräldrar med missbruk ett antal vardagliga svårigheter. En av dessa svårigheter är att gömma missbruket för sina barn. Föräldrarna upplever starka känslor av skuld och skam, men ser sina barn som en motivation till att lämna missbruket bakom sig. Tydliga brister uppdagas i föräldrarnas förmåga att ge emotionellt stöd. Däremot finns styrkan i att uppfylla barnens basala behov i form av konkreta handlingar. Föräldrar med missbruk upplever svårigheter i uppfostran av sina barn. / Background: About 27 million people in the world lives with a substance abuse. Many of them are parents. There is a need in the abuse- and addiction care of having a family perspective of how the substance abuseing parent affects the whole family. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of being a parent with a substance abuse. Method: A literature study based on eight qualitative articles. Results: Two main themes were found; an emotional storm and the daily struggle. The main result of this study was that parents with substance abuse experience feelings as guilt and shame. Furthermore, they found it difficult to raise their children and satisfy the emotional needs that children require. From the parents view the children were seen as a way of salvations from substance abuse. Conclusion: The study showed that parents with substance abuse found it difficult to provide their children with emotional support and that they have strong feelings of guilt and shame. However, they can perform daily chores and try to hide the drugs from the children. A daily struggle for these parents was how to raise their children. While the parent is seen as an inappropriate role model for the child, the child was seen as motivation for the parent.

Elizabeth is an apparel company that is built around the concept of creating a collection of unique children’s apparel that encourages self-expression. The company was founded in January 2016. Their principal office is located in Taipei, Taiwan. The brand was initially created on the foundation of the Fairyware Couture collection. Each dress in the collection is delicately handmade taking over 4 hours of labor. Demand continued to increase for the collection leading the brand to venture into Ready to Wear and Accessories. Elizabeth had successfully found a demand in the children’s wear market. Elizabeth currently has a total of three different collections with more on the way. The first collection launched in May 2016 through the retail channel of a pop up store. The launch was an extreme success with most of the inventory being depleted within the first week. In addition to several large press publications promoting the brand and the new collection for several weeks leading up to the opening and for several weeks after.

This report details an internship with the Louisiana Children’s Museum’s development office, which started in February 2014; transitioned from internship to employment in May 2014; and concluded in June 2014 after the Museum’s fundraising event, Circus Magic Night. In this paper, I will provide an overview of the Museum’s history, programs, and organizational structure, as well as describe my internship experience and contributions over a period of five months and 480 hours. Additionally, I will analyze LCM’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; discuss relevant best practices; and finally, offer recommendations that propose solutions to some of the challenges I observed as the development/special events intern and as the new special events coordinator.

In this study I have analysed three picture books from a gender perspective: Gittan gömmer bort sig, Vera och Vilgot i byggvaruhuset, and Superhjälte. The aim was to find out how the characters are presented from a gender perspective and whether traditional gender patterns are reinforced or challenged. The aim is to find signs of equality between the sexes. The method used is discourse analysis. The theory from which I proceed is gender-focused literature analysis.   The analyses showed that several of the characters break traditional gender patterns and that the equality of the sexes is manifest. It is above all the children in the books who do not follow the norm, whereas the adults are more stereotyped. My perception is that these books seek to question traditional gender roles. A broad repertoire of books can help to affect children’s view of gender. School should uphold the equality of the sexes, and as teachers we can help to shape the children so that they do not get stuck in traditional patterns.

In this study we have analysed six modern books for children and adolescents. The books we chose to analyse were four titles from the series Lassemajas detektivbyrå, Rum 213 and Cirkeln because they are popular among girls in compulsory school. The aim of the analysis was to investigate how girls are presented in the books as regards personality, appearance and relations. We also wanted to investigate the gender relations expressed in the books. We discovered that the books we analysed largely go against traditional norms. This was most visible in Cirkeln. In Lassemajas detektivbyrå there are leading characters who break the norms, but otherwise traditional gender patterns are retained. In Rum 213 it was not as clear that the author wanted to break traditional patterns. In the books we observed a desire to create new spaces for girls to be themselves on the basis of their identity and not their gender. It is our perception that today’s books for children and adolescents are increasingly questioning traditional norms.

The aim of this study is to examine how substance abuse and mental illnesses are portrayed in children’s literature from a child’s perspective. To achieve the aim, text analyses were performed on four selected works of children’s literature. The question asked is: in what way can the selected books function to support pupils in problematic family circumstances? The scientific approach of the study is hermeneutic. Hermeneutics means the theory of interpretation and concerns the creation of meaning and understanding through interpretations of texts. The analyses proceed from a hermeneutic model. The model shows how different components go together in the interpretation of a text. In the analyses the children’s literature is set in relation to the background chapter, which shows what the reality is like. The discussion considers the analyses in greater depth with the aid of the theory in order to investigate how readers with similar experiences can perceive and be affected by literature. We chose to design the study in this way because it reflects the hermeneutics. The results of the study show that the selected literature can affect the reader. The theory shows that people have a tendency to recognize themselves in literature and see their own problems at a distance, which helps the reader in real life. Through the literature the reader’s conceptual world can be expanded by new insights into their surroundings. The conclusions drawn in the study are that it is important to work with the Convention on the Rights of the Child in school, to explain to children that adults are not always in good health, and that children have a right to be children.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / This study is an assessment of participatory monitoring and evaluation in NGOs: a case study of SOS Children’s Village,Cape town, South Africa. The aim of the study is to examine the process of application of PM&E framework in the SOS Children’s Village Project, with a view to ascertaining its impact on the project and to provide suggestions and recommendations to SOS and NGOs in South Africa. There were four primary objectives of this study: to provide a theoretical and conceptual framework, through the discussion and/or analysis of applicable PM&E theories and concepts; to provide an overview of organizational structure of the project implementation team of SOS; to identify the different stakeholders involved in the monitoring and evaluation process; to empirically assess the process of PM&E in the SOS Project. The theoretical and conceptual framework of participatory development approach and the child rights based approach is used in this study. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of research are used throughout the study and measurement of key variables are made. While the systematic random sampling technique is utilised to collect data for the quantitative research, purposive sampling was used to select respondents for semi-structured interviews in the qualitative research. The study identified that the monitoring and evaluation process in SOS Children’s Village, Cape Town, South Africa is participatory in which the relevant stakeholders, especially the beneficiaries i.e. children participate in the monitoring and evaluation process. However, the study recommended that there should be an updated training and seminar for the staff to empower them to enhance their understanding of participatory monitoring and evaluation.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman has several characters who in many ways break gender norms. The main protagonist of the novel, Coraline, acts more in accordance with masculine gender norms, and the mother figures are mothers who do not fully conform to the traditional mother role. The purpose of this study is to look at how Coraline and the mother figures perform their gender, and in which ways this breaks with or aligns with traditional gender norms. The analytical approach is based on Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, and on masculine and feminine gender schemas defined by John Stephens. For the analysis of motherhood, gender performativity has also been used, and works by Adrienne Rich and Einat Natalie Palkovich. This study shows that the protagonists challenge traditional gender role norms of masculinity and femininity, whereof motherhood is part. The study also shows that there is a lack of female role models for the young protagonist, and that acting according to masculine gender norms is desirable and necessary in the novel. But for the mothers, breaking gender norms is undesirable, dangerous, and even punished. A conclusion of the study is that even though Coraline appears to be a feminist novel, the underlying message is not entirely so.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how children experience their everyday travel. More specifically how do certain travel characteristics influence children’s current mood, experiences of their everyday travel, and their cognitive performance. The thesis consists of two papers (Papers I and II). In Paper I, 206 children (101 girls) in grade 4 (aged 10), in the city of Staffanstorp in Sweden, recorded all their journeys in a diary during one school week, along with reports of their travel mode, their current mood while travelling (ranging from very sad to very happy and from very tired to very alert), their activities on arrival, and their experiences regarding those activities. In Paper II, a sample of 344 children (165 girls) between the ages of 10 and 15 was taken at five public schools in Värmland County, Sweden. The children rated their current mood, filled out the Satisfaction with Travel Scale (capturing the travel experience), reported details about their journeys, and took a word-fluency test. The findings show that children’s immediate affective experiences (current mood) vary with how they travel and where they go, and that there is a difference between boys’ and girls’ experiences. Children who travel by car experience the lowest degree of quality and activation, something which is also maintained throughout the school day (as the case with activation). Social activities during travel add to higher degree of quality and excitement, while solitary activities bring more stress. The findings further show that using a smartphone or doing a combination of activities during the journey results in better cognitive performance, as do longer traveling times. It is concluded that where and how children travel, what they do when traveling, and for how long they travel all affect children’s travel experiences, mood, and/or cognitive performance. This thesis sheds light on a neglected research area – which is the experiences of travel – through the lens of a child. / The purpose of this licentiate thesis is to examine how children experience their everyday travel. More specifically, do travel mode, travel time, and travel activities influence children’s experiences of their everyday travel, how they feel, and how they perform at school. In Paper 1 we investigate whether children’s moods, while travelling, vary with travel mode and destination. In Paper 2 we investigate whether children’s experiences of travel and current mood vary with travel mode, traveling time, and activities during travel. We also investigate whether the travel experience affects cognitive performance. The overall findings of the two studies suggest that where and how children travel, what they do when traveling, and for how long they travel all affect children’s travel experiences, moods, and cognitive performance. These novel findings bring important knowledge of the impact of a journey. Children are the next generation of traveler; how they experience their day-to-day travel may contribute toward their future travel behavior and influence how societies travel in the future.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur stor andel barn mellan 10–14 år som tydligt fått komma till tals samt hur deras utsagor uttrycks i de skriftliga domsluten vid överklagande av LVU till kammarrätten. En kategorisering av alla domslut från utvald kammarrätt gjordes för att sedan välja ut åtta av domsluten att granska kvalitativt utifrån Harts delaktighetsstege och barndomssociologi. Resultatet visade att barn i mindre än hälften av domsluten tydligt fått komma till tals och att barnets åsikt uttrycks i olika stor utsträckning i de skriftliga domsluten, dock framkommer inte barnets åsikter i avsnittet skäl för beslut i domslutet. Barn anses ofta i förhållande till vuxna inte vara tillräckligt mogna vilket kan medför att de inte får vara aktiva aktörer och att deras handlingsutrymme begränsas. Vuxna som arbetar med barn måste vara medvetna om den komplexitet som råder mellan barnets rätt till delaktighet och barnets bästa. / The aim of this study was to examine the proportion of children between ages 10-14 who clearly got to express themselves and how their views were expressed in written documents when appealing LVU to kammarrätten. A categorization of all judgments from a court were made, the eight were selected to examine qualitatively supported by Hart's ladder of participation and childhood sociology. The result showed that children in less than half of the judgements clearly got to express themselves and that the child's words were noted to varying degrees, however, in the section reasons for decision the child’s views were not included. Children are often not considered sufficiently mature in relation to adults, which means that they may not be active actors and that their room for maneuver is restricted. Adults working with children must be aware of the complexity between the child's right to participation and the child’s best interests.