Several single factors have been identified as related to coping with trauma and as protective factors. Several studies emphasize the importance of personality, core beliefs, coping strategies and social support. However little attention has been paid to resiliency. The aim of the study was to identify some determinants of an individual’s resiliency after experienced traumatic life events, and to address the issue of its relationship to personality characteristics, psychopathology, coping resources and strategies, social support, sense of coherence and quality of life. In the present study, a convenience sample of 100 Iranian refugees, 66 males and 34 females in the age range of 18-65 were investigated. All the subjects have experienced one or several traumatic life events as soldiers, political prisoners or have been victims of torture or have escaped from the country in a stressful way. At the time of the present investigation the mean time living in Sweden was for male subject’s 12.8 years and for female 11.8. Nine instruments were administered during individual sessions, Temperament, Character Inventory (TCI), The EMBU (Swedish acronym for own memories concerning upbringing), The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90 – R), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Interview Schedule of Social Interaction (ISSI), Coping Resources Inventory (CRI), The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), WHOQoL Group, 1995 (WHOQoL-100), The Sense of Coherence Scale (SoC). Several significant associations were found between personality temperament and character, parental rearing and psychopathology. When experiences of parental rearing were investigated in relation to psychopathology, male subjects scored high on parental rejection and were also more depressed compared to females. Although the individuals in the sample suffered from depression or anxiety, there were individuals that had adapted them-self well with the new life in Sweden and its demands. Nineteen percent of subjects who had low harm avoidance and high self directedness received more social support, had better coping strategies, higher sense of coherence and finally a better quality of life. This dissertation underscores the importance of multiple indicators when trying to understand resiliency. Personality traits, parental rearing, coping resources, social support and sense of coherence were the strongest predictors for resiliency. Having a systemic perspective helps to explain why some individuals are healthy and resilient despite traumatic life events, escaping from home country, applying for asylum, establishing a new home, learning new languages, to study and stablish and develop new bonds.

Bakgrund: I DSM-5 (2013) kombinerades de två diagnoserna ’Asperger’s syndrome’ och ’Autistic Disorder’, bland andra, till ’Autismspektrumtillstånd’ (AST) tillsammans med högre kriterier för att uppnå diagnosen. Denna uppsats är avsedd att undersöka utkomsten av denna förändring och dess konsekvenser för dess mottagare av diagnoserna tio år senare i en Svensk vårdkontext och vanliga uppfattningar om diagnosen.Resultat: En tematisk analys (TA) med fyra deltagare resulterade i en fördjupad analys av det praktiska kliniska arbetet kring klassificering av individer med AST som gav insikter om varför en del av oron inför förändringen inte besannats och hur samhället ser på mottagare av diagnosen. Slutsats: Diagnosen i sig är inte den huvudsakliga beståndsdelen i mottagande av bistånd i svensk vårdkontext. En individs funktionshinder ska vara den viktigaste faktorn i detta, och att inte uppnå en lämplig diagnos gör en person undantagen från insatser. Samhället uppfattas inte heller ha nått en nivå av förståelse för vad AST innebär, även om acceptansen för diagnosen verkar har ökat. / Background: In DSM-5 (2013) the two diagnoses ‘Asperger’s Syndrome’ and ‘Autistic Disorder’, amongst others, were combined to ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’ (ASD) along with higher criteria to achieve the diagnose. This paper is intended to investigate what came of this change and its implications for its recipients of the diagnoses ten years later in a Swedish caregiving context and common conceptions of the diagnose.Results: A Thematic Analysis (TA) with four participants resulted in an in-depth analysis of the practical clinical work regarding the classification of individuals with ASD providing insights as to why the change has not had some of the apprehension it entailed and how the society regards recipients of the diagnose. In this also, an investigation of the diagnosis throughout the history of DSM.Conclusion: The diagnose per se is not the main constituent in receiving of aid in the Swedish care context. An individual’s disability is supposed to be the main factor in this but not achieving a suitable diagnose makes one exempt. Society as well has not perceivably reached a level of understanding of what ASD entails though acceptance for it seemingly has increased.

No description available.

<p>The 1980s mark the beginning of systematic research and theoretical advances in the field of psychic trauma in children. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was a diagnosis for adults in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). In a later version, children and adolescents were partially included (American Psychiatric Association, 1987). Since 1980, a range of traumatic events have been identified as having the required stressor characteristics for posttraumatic stress reactions to manifest in children and adolescents.</p><p>In this study, the role of the stressor and peritraumatic reactions in PTSD of children and adolescents was studied. In addition, co-existing factors were assessed and related to the development and maintenance of PTSD reactions. A cascade of distressing events described the stressor in children who reported sexual abuse in daycare (paper I), and single-incident events were studied in adolescents (paper III). Subjective reactions during or immediately after the traumatic event, such as intense emotions, physiological arousal, dissociation and having thoughts of intervening, were strongly associated to the subsequent development of PTSD reactions in adolescents. The findings indicate that subjective responses to traumatic events play an important role in PTSD etiology. Objective features of the stressor, such as death or physical injury did not relate significantly to the levels of posttraumatic stress reactions. Half the children exposed to the cascade stressor in the case of alleged child sexual abuse, showed significant levels of PTSD reactions four years later. The objective features of the cascade stressor depended on the reported severity of child sexual abuse as well as media exposure, medical examinations, forensic interviews and the court trial. Children with high levels of PTSD reactions reported more severe CSA and were also more exposed to the media and the court trial, but the tendency was not significant.</p><p>Moreover, co-existing factors not related to the traumatic event may play important roles in the development and maintenance of PTSD reactions. After alleged sexual abuse and subsequent distressing events, older children displayed more PTSD reactions than younger children, which may indicate that younger children were more protected from developing distress in this situation. On the other hand, five weeks after a tram car accident, age was negatively associated with the levels of PTSD reactions in a group of children (paper IV). The findings may be due to the diverse nature of the stressors and methodological issues.</p><p>Other co-existing factors to PTSD, such as behavior problems in children and adolescents, may represent considerable difficulties in a young person’s life. In the current study, children displayed significant levels of behavioral problems four years after alleged sexual abuse.</p><p>The impact on parents and the rest of the child’s family cannot be ignored in the assessment of posttraumatic stress reactions of children and adolescents. In this study, comprehensive assessments were made of the parents’ experiences and levels of distress after alleged sexual abuse of their children. The parents were exposed to a cascade of events, including hearing about the sexual abuse, being involved in the police investigation and the court trial and being exposed in media reports. Four years after the events, elements of the stressor were significantly associated to the level of posttraumatic stress reactions. The findings illustrate how child sexual abuse reports may involve the children’s parents and expose them to high levels of distress over a long period of time.</p><p>In addition, interactions in the family may contribute in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress reactions in children and adolescents, and impede the healing processes. </p><p>After traumatic events in childhood, researchers tend to prefer parental reports of the children’s reactions to spare the children. In this study, children reported significantly higher levels of distress than observed by their parents after a tram car accident (paper IV). These findings indicate that parents unintentionally may bring in a response bias in their reports, which future research and clinical practice should take into account.</p><p>The study illustrates that traumatic events are complex experiences involving cognitive and emotional reactions, physiological arousal and dissociation, and that these reactions may induce posttraumatic stress reactions in children and adolescents. The cascade stressor subsequent to alleged sexual abuse of children showed how different elements of the stressor may lead to distress over a long period of time. The distress involved both children and parents in this study.</p> / Paper II reprinted with kind permission of Elsevier, www.sciencedirect.com

No description available.

<p>Syfte och frågeställningar</p><p>Syftet med denna studie var att ta reda på vilka funktioner självhjälpsgrupper idag fyller i samhället inom olika hälsoområden. Syftet var också att belysa hur självhjälpsgrupper anser att deras arbete går att kombinera med professionell hjälpverksamhet och då i synnerhet om och hur en hälsopedagog kan och bör samarbeta med självhjälpsgrupper.</p><p>Metod</p><p>Studien inleddes med en litteraturgenomgång för att ta reda på forskarnas inställning till professionellas arbete med självhjälpsgrupper. Via internet och sökmotorn på www.msn.se har lämpliga självhjälpsgrupper för studien sökts fram. Urvalet till grupperna är baserat på de hälsoämnen som ingått i hälsopedagogutbildningen på Idrottshögskolan i Stockholm under tiden 2002-2005. I samtliga fall har en eller två av organisationen utsedda representanter som arbetat för sin respektive självhjälpsgrupp eller dess samordnare intervjuats. Intervjun har varit ostrukturerad med endast stödjande frågor för att få svar på ovanstående frågeställningar. Efter intervjuerna har svaren sammanställts i essäform samt sänts tillbaka till de intervjuade för genomläsning.</p><p>Resultat</p><p>Samtliga studerade grupper/organisationer berör hälsoområden inom psykisk hälsa/ohälsa respektive alkoholism. Grupperna har en relativt enad syn på att professionella inte hör hemma i arbetet med självhjälp. Den undersökta gruppen PersonalDialog skiljer sig från detta då de redan bygger en del av sin metod på professionell hjälp. Ingen av de undersökta grupperna har idag ett direkt samarbete med hälsopedagoger.</p><p>Slutsats</p><p>Samarbete mellan hälsopedagoger och självhjälpsgrupper finns idag knappt. Alla har dock, oavsett professionell bakgrund eller som förespråkare av självhjälpsgrupper samma syfte, nämligen att förbättra individernas hälsa och stärka deras självkänsla. Att som hälsopedagog vara medveten om att självhjälpsgrupper finns är viktigt. Vilken roll man sedan väljer att ta i arbetet måste få vara upp till var och en utifrån eget intresse och kunskap. Min rekommendation är dock att både professionella och självhjälpsgrupper fortsätter att främja och utveckla ett mer aktivt samarbete mellan dem båda.</p> / <p>Aim</p><p>The aim with this study was to find out which role self-help groups have today in our community in different health fields. The aim was also to see how self-help groups think that their work is possible to combine with professional social service and then especially if and how a health educationist can work together with self-help groups.</p><p>Methods</p><p>The study started with reading to find out what earlier researchers think about professionals’ work with self-help groups. Through Internet and www.msn.se appropriate self-help groups to study has been selected. The selection is based on those health subjects that are included in the health education programme at Stockholm University College of physical education and sport during 2002-2005. From all groups one or two person’s choosed by the organizations have been interviewed. All of them have worked for their self-help group or their coordinate. The interview has been in unstructured form with just supportive questions to get answers corresponding to the aim. After the interviews the answers are put together and red through by the interviewee.</p><p>Results</p><p>All studied groups/organizations belong to the health area, especially to physical health and alcoholic problems. The groups have a united opinion that professionals do not belong in self-help groups. One of the studied groups, PersonalDialog, is separate from this though they already include professional help. None of the studied groups work with health educationists today.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Today it is almost impossible to find cooperation between health educationists and self-help groups although we all have the same aim to promote health and strengthen the self-esteem with these persons. It is important as a health educationist to know that self-help groups exist. Which role to choose must be one own´s decision based on interests and knowledge. My recommendation is that professionals as well as self-help groups keep on supporting and developing a good cooperation between them.</p>

The 1980s mark the beginning of systematic research and theoretical advances in the field of psychic trauma in children. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was a diagnosis for adults in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). In a later version, children and adolescents were partially included (American Psychiatric Association, 1987). Since 1980, a range of traumatic events have been identified as having the required stressor characteristics for posttraumatic stress reactions to manifest in children and adolescents. In this study, the role of the stressor and peritraumatic reactions in PTSD of children and adolescents was studied. In addition, co-existing factors were assessed and related to the development and maintenance of PTSD reactions. A cascade of distressing events described the stressor in children who reported sexual abuse in daycare (paper I), and single-incident events were studied in adolescents (paper III). Subjective reactions during or immediately after the traumatic event, such as intense emotions, physiological arousal, dissociation and having thoughts of intervening, were strongly associated to the subsequent development of PTSD reactions in adolescents. The findings indicate that subjective responses to traumatic events play an important role in PTSD etiology. Objective features of the stressor, such as death or physical injury did not relate significantly to the levels of posttraumatic stress reactions. Half the children exposed to the cascade stressor in the case of alleged child sexual abuse, showed significant levels of PTSD reactions four years later. The objective features of the cascade stressor depended on the reported severity of child sexual abuse as well as media exposure, medical examinations, forensic interviews and the court trial. Children with high levels of PTSD reactions reported more severe CSA and were also more exposed to the media and the court trial, but the tendency was not significant. Moreover, co-existing factors not related to the traumatic event may play important roles in the development and maintenance of PTSD reactions. After alleged sexual abuse and subsequent distressing events, older children displayed more PTSD reactions than younger children, which may indicate that younger children were more protected from developing distress in this situation. On the other hand, five weeks after a tram car accident, age was negatively associated with the levels of PTSD reactions in a group of children (paper IV). The findings may be due to the diverse nature of the stressors and methodological issues. Other co-existing factors to PTSD, such as behavior problems in children and adolescents, may represent considerable difficulties in a young person’s life. In the current study, children displayed significant levels of behavioral problems four years after alleged sexual abuse. The impact on parents and the rest of the child’s family cannot be ignored in the assessment of posttraumatic stress reactions of children and adolescents. In this study, comprehensive assessments were made of the parents’ experiences and levels of distress after alleged sexual abuse of their children. The parents were exposed to a cascade of events, including hearing about the sexual abuse, being involved in the police investigation and the court trial and being exposed in media reports. Four years after the events, elements of the stressor were significantly associated to the level of posttraumatic stress reactions. The findings illustrate how child sexual abuse reports may involve the children’s parents and expose them to high levels of distress over a long period of time. In addition, interactions in the family may contribute in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress reactions in children and adolescents, and impede the healing processes. After traumatic events in childhood, researchers tend to prefer parental reports of the children’s reactions to spare the children. In this study, children reported significantly higher levels of distress than observed by their parents after a tram car accident (paper IV). These findings indicate that parents unintentionally may bring in a response bias in their reports, which future research and clinical practice should take into account. The study illustrates that traumatic events are complex experiences involving cognitive and emotional reactions, physiological arousal and dissociation, and that these reactions may induce posttraumatic stress reactions in children and adolescents. The cascade stressor subsequent to alleged sexual abuse of children showed how different elements of the stressor may lead to distress over a long period of time. The distress involved both children and parents in this study. / Paper II reprinted with kind permission of Elsevier, www.sciencedirect.com

No description available.

In former days the descriptions of personality were based on typologies, reflecting the view that people do not change over time and so have a stable, life-long personality type. Later on exclusive categories were created, but during recent times the understanding of personality has changed due to more dimensional and dynamic thinking. Cloninger’s personality theory integrates concepts and research findings from neuroanatomy, neurophysiology of behavior and learning, and from developmental, social and clinical psychology. It is postulated that the behavioural systems of temperament and character are related to two major neural systems for the adaptation of experiences on various levels. The continuous interaction between temperament and character affects the personality development in both directions; temperament impacts upon character and vice versa during life. The development of the TCI was founded on the development of the biosocial theory of personality, which in turn stimulated the further development of the theory. Unfortunately this theory-based approach is not commonly used in the development of personality measurements. The development of a personality questionnaire on the basis of the theory must be viewed as a significant challenge, and this prompted my interest in dealing with and learning more about this personality assessment method. The objectives of this thesis were a critical evaluation of Cloninger’s theory; a test of its applicability in psychiatric science; and an attempt to contribute to its development. The main findings of our investigations can be described as follows: The adaptation of the Swedish version of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was successful and the seven factor structure of Cloninger’s biopsychological theory of personality theory was mainly confirmed by the Swedish normative data and by cross-cultural comparisons between data from Germany, Sweden and the U.S.A. The results concerning internal consistency and factor structure further underline that the adult version of the TCI is unsuitable for use in adolescents before age of 17 years. For the adolescents the junior TCI is recommended. Furthermore temperament dimensions seem to be more stable over time compared to the character dimensions. The gender and age differences found suggest that both have to be taken into account in research and clinical application. The results from our studies suggested that the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) has to be evaluated as a useful tool within the process of validation of diagnosis of a Personality Disorder (PD), especially in clinical practice where it is often difficult to recognise all a patient’s personality disturbances during a short time. Use of the TCI is likely to improve understanding, classification, and subsequently the interpretations in clinical settings.

Syfte och frågeställningar Syftet med denna studie var att ta reda på vilka funktioner självhjälpsgrupper idag fyller i samhället inom olika hälsoområden. Syftet var också att belysa hur självhjälpsgrupper anser att deras arbete går att kombinera med professionell hjälpverksamhet och då i synnerhet om och hur en hälsopedagog kan och bör samarbeta med självhjälpsgrupper. Metod Studien inleddes med en litteraturgenomgång för att ta reda på forskarnas inställning till professionellas arbete med självhjälpsgrupper. Via internet och sökmotorn på www.msn.se har lämpliga självhjälpsgrupper för studien sökts fram. Urvalet till grupperna är baserat på de hälsoämnen som ingått i hälsopedagogutbildningen på Idrottshögskolan i Stockholm under tiden 2002-2005. I samtliga fall har en eller två av organisationen utsedda representanter som arbetat för sin respektive självhjälpsgrupp eller dess samordnare intervjuats. Intervjun har varit ostrukturerad med endast stödjande frågor för att få svar på ovanstående frågeställningar. Efter intervjuerna har svaren sammanställts i essäform samt sänts tillbaka till de intervjuade för genomläsning. Resultat Samtliga studerade grupper/organisationer berör hälsoområden inom psykisk hälsa/ohälsa respektive alkoholism. Grupperna har en relativt enad syn på att professionella inte hör hemma i arbetet med självhjälp. Den undersökta gruppen PersonalDialog skiljer sig från detta då de redan bygger en del av sin metod på professionell hjälp. Ingen av de undersökta grupperna har idag ett direkt samarbete med hälsopedagoger. Slutsats Samarbete mellan hälsopedagoger och självhjälpsgrupper finns idag knappt. Alla har dock, oavsett professionell bakgrund eller som förespråkare av självhjälpsgrupper samma syfte, nämligen att förbättra individernas hälsa och stärka deras självkänsla. Att som hälsopedagog vara medveten om att självhjälpsgrupper finns är viktigt. Vilken roll man sedan väljer att ta i arbetet måste få vara upp till var och en utifrån eget intresse och kunskap. Min rekommendation är dock att både professionella och självhjälpsgrupper fortsätter att främja och utveckla ett mer aktivt samarbete mellan dem båda. / Aim The aim with this study was to find out which role self-help groups have today in our community in different health fields. The aim was also to see how self-help groups think that their work is possible to combine with professional social service and then especially if and how a health educationist can work together with self-help groups. Methods The study started with reading to find out what earlier researchers think about professionals’ work with self-help groups. Through Internet and www.msn.se appropriate self-help groups to study has been selected. The selection is based on those health subjects that are included in the health education programme at Stockholm University College of physical education and sport during 2002-2005. From all groups one or two person’s choosed by the organizations have been interviewed. All of them have worked for their self-help group or their coordinate. The interview has been in unstructured form with just supportive questions to get answers corresponding to the aim. After the interviews the answers are put together and red through by the interviewee. Results All studied groups/organizations belong to the health area, especially to physical health and alcoholic problems. The groups have a united opinion that professionals do not belong in self-help groups. One of the studied groups, PersonalDialog, is separate from this though they already include professional help. None of the studied groups work with health educationists today. Conclusions Today it is almost impossible to find cooperation between health educationists and self-help groups although we all have the same aim to promote health and strengthen the self-esteem with these persons. It is important as a health educationist to know that self-help groups exist. Which role to choose must be one own´s decision based on interests and knowledge. My recommendation is that professionals as well as self-help groups keep on supporting and developing a good cooperation between them.