Our aim with this study was to investigate whether gender plays a role in children'sexperiences of growing up in abusive environments, as well as how this affects themin adulthood. It is a qualitative study conducted using a thematic text method. Weused Yvonne Hirdman's gender theoretical concepts for our analysis. Our empiricalwork consists of five autobiographies. Where we sorted them into different themesto see which themes were most central in the books. The criteria we had whensearching for autobiographies was that the authors should have lived under alcoholabuse conditions regarding one or two of their parents. According to the themes wefound, we divided the results into two parts. The first part presents how the authorsexperienced their childhood and the second one how the authors described how itaffected them in adulthood. Each part has three subcategories that present differentaspects of the result. The analysis of our results can be found after the subcategoriesin each theme. The research is limited to children who lives in an environment ofalcoholics abuse. We wanted to gain an in-depth knowledge of how the childs ́sgender will affect their lives and actions in adulthood. By highlighting thisperspective on the subject, our intention is to contribute to more in-depth knowledgeof the subject. From the results it can be seen that the invisible rules and frameworksof the gender contract play a role in how children deal with their upbringing inalcohol abuse, as well as how this characterizes the impact of the situation inadulthood.

Our aim with this study was to investigate whether gender plays a role in children'sexperiences of growing up in abusive environments, as well as how this affects themin adulthood. It is a qualitative study conducted using a thematic text method. Weused Yvonne Hirdman's gender theoretical concepts for our analysis. Our empiricalwork consists of five autobiographies. Where we sorted them into different themesto see which themes were most central in the books. The criteria we had whensearching for autobiographies was that the authors should have lived under alcoholabuse conditions regarding one or two of their parents. According to the themes wefound, we divided the results into two parts. The first part presents how the authorsexperienced their childhood and the second one how the authors described how itaffected them in adulthood. Each part has three subcategories that present differentaspects of the result. The analysis of our results can be found after the subcategoriesin each theme. The research is limited to children who lives in an environment ofalcoholics abuse. We wanted to gain an in-depth knowledge of how the childs´sgender will affect their lives and actions in adulthood. By highlighting thisperspective on the subject, our intention is to contribute to more in-depth knowledgeof the subject. From the results it can be seen that the invisible rules and frameworksof the gender contract play a role in how children deal with their upbringing inalcohol abuse, as well as how this characterizes the impact of the situation inadulthood.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how children as relatives of mentally ill parents are produced in picture books. It has been implemented through analysis of three selected picture books. The aim of this study is also to see what didactic function the literature has and how it can be applied in the pre-school activities. The study employes the ecological systems theory of child development by Urie Bronfenbrenner. The analysis has been conducted based on Dahlborg-Lyckhages analytical model and Nicolajevas model of person portrayal in picture books. The results shows that mental illness in picture books is equated with how the existing research defines mental illness. It also shows that the children's influence of mental illness is visualized through parentification and lack of attachment. The result also shows that there is a didactic function in the literature, the books are suitable to increase the knowledge about children as relatives of mentally ill parents and to increase knowledge about mental illness. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur barn som anhöriga till psykiskt sjuka föräldrar framställs i bilderböcker, i relation till vad existerande forskning säger om densamma. Det har genomförts genom analys av tre utvalda bilderböcker. Studien har även till syfte att se vilken didaktisk funktion litteraturen har och hur den kan tillämpas i förskoleverksamheten. Analysen har genomförts utifrån Dahlborg-Lyckhages modell för analys av berättelser samt Nikolajevas modell för bilderbokens personskildring och ses genom det utvecklingsekologiska perspektivet. Resultatet av analysen visar att den psykiska ohälsan likställs med hur den existerande forskningen definierar psykisk ohälsa och att barnens påverkan av den psykiska ohälsan synliggörs genom föräldrafiering och bristande anknytning. Resultatet visar också på att det finns en didaktisk funktion i litteraturen, böckerna lämpar sig för att öka kunskapen om barn som anhöriga till psykiskt sjuka föräldrar och för att öka kunskapen om psykisk ohälsa bland barn och pedagoger.