The aim of this study was to describe and understand how individuals in adulthood experienced a childhood with neglect, and how they handled neglect. In order to reach the perspective of the individuals who grew up with neglect, we chose to use autobiographical books as our empirical material. The criteria the autobiographies had to meet in order to fall within the scope of this study was that the biographies had to display the experience of neglect during childhood, and thereto the books had to be written by individuals who themselves experienced neglect. Based on the aim of this study we sought answers to three questions: How do the individuals describe their upbringing with a mentally or socially disabled parent? How have the individuals coped with the neglect they’ve been exposed to? What consequences have the neglect supposedly led to? The findings of this study show that the extent to which the individuals experienced neglect were profound and comprising. Most prominent in the material was physical and mental abuse. For survival the individuals used different strategies to master the different situations they were subjected to. The strategies the individuals described were most often used to provide food, confirmation and to keep emotions in check. Furthermore the individuals described that the neglect and abuse led to various consequences, some that were prominent during childhood others not until the individuals reached adulthood.

The aim of the study was to describe and analyse self-biographical narratives through a retroperspective, how three exposed individuals formulated the appearance and management of trauma during their childhood. The aim was further to describe the impact the trauma had in their childhood, due to the fact that they grew up with a disabled parent. To do so I had to get information from the individuals and chose to use autobiographies as empirical material. In order to implement the study I sought answers to four questions: The first question was how adults described experienced trauma and its origin during their childhood, that their parents had caused by them, depending whether the parents having a mental or social disable? The second question was how the adults handled their experience of trauma which occurred during their childhood? The third question for the study was which consequences the trauma had on the adults as children? The last question was which different factors of protection the individuals described during their childhood and how they related to these? The study showed that risk of the individuals suffering from trauma increased the longer the individual were exposed to violence and neglect. The severity of violence and neglect contributed to the origin and duration of trauma and caused problems that persisted in the children. The results also showed that children who experienced trauma, caused by their parents, depending their parents having a mental or social disable, had multiple consequences. The parents of the children often used physical or mental abuse against the children or neglected their basic needs of food and clothes. The children showed signs of distrust of others, problems with sleeping and often felt scared and ashamed of their parent’s behaviour, when the parents were sick. Furthermore the result of the study showed that the children tried to stop the violence from their parents by all means by trying to change their own behaviour. They did so because they thought they were to blame for the violence.

Abstract The law with special provisions on the care of young people (SFS 1990: 52) (LVU) regulates a possible way out for the social service to compulsorily act to protect children and young people who in different ways are disadvantaged. When an intervention is made in accordance with this law, high legal security requirements are set for each child in each unique case. The purpose of this essay is to analyze whether the administrative law highlights the rights of the children and the best interests of the child in a legal process regarding. This is done through an analysis of administrative law judgments. The study also includes an examination of how the administrative law chooses to take the best interest of the child into account when making a decision. The results of the study show that, in the majority of cases, administrative law emphasizes the importance of the best interests of the child coming to the forefront and the rights of the child to be fulfilled. It also emerges that the child's age and maturity are of great importance for how the administrative law views the credibility of the child's story. If the child has been able to maintain his story over time, it also appears to be something that the administrative law takes into account in the decision-making process. Whether a child is to be represented in the legal process is clear in guidelines and conventions, but how the child's story is taken into account seems ambiguous. How the children should be considered in a legal process seems obvious in theory, but through the course of the study, the reality has turned out to be different. Although the child's perspective and the best interests of the child are described as important, in some cases the administrative law is considered to have a poor child perspective.