Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och analysera unga mammors tankar om sitt föräldraskap och hur det påverkar identitetsprocessen. Syftet är också att förstå vilket stöd de behöver i sin situation som unga föräldrar. Studien bygger på intervjuer med sex mammor som alla fött sitt första barn innan de fyllt 21 år. Intervjuerna har därefter analyserats med hjälp av teorier om identitet och stöd. Resultatet i denna studie visar på att trots att mammorna lever ett tillsynes välordnat och vanligt liv är det en grupp med unga mammor som också upplever en ensamhet och utanförskap. De är isolerade i hemmet där de har det största ansvaret för barn och hem. Barnets pappa står för försörjningen och detta bidrar till hans frånvaro från familjen. De unga mammorna har svårt att återgå till studier och de är begränsade i deras möjligeter att komma ut i arbetslivet. De begränsas också i sina möjligheter att utveckla sin identitet då de inte får möjlighet att vistas på andra arenor än i hemmet eller med sina barn. De unga mammorna har ett behov av stöd på flera olika plan. De är i behov av samhälleligt stöd för att få en chans att komma ut till arbete och i deras vardagliga liv är deras egna nätverk en viktig del för att den unga mamman ska få vardagen att fungera men de behöver också få tillgång till kontakter med jämnåriga utanför familjen och möta andra unga föräldrar i samma situation. / The aim of this study is to describe and analyze young mothers' thoughts on parenthood and how it affects their identity process. It is also to understand what support they need in their situation as young parents. The study is based on interviews with six mothers who all gave birth to their first child before they turned 21 years of age. The interviews have then been analyzed with the help of theories about identity and support. The results of this study show that despite the mothers living seemingly well-managed lives, they are a group of young mothers who experience loneliness and exclusion. They are isolated at home where they have the greatest responsibility for the children and the home. The child's father is responsible for supporting the mother and child which contributes to his absence from the family. These young mothers have difficulty in resuming studies and are limited in their possibilities to return to working life. They are also limited in their ability to develop their identity due to the fact that they are not able to reside in physical environments other than the home or with their children. The young mothers are in need of support on several different levels. They are in need of societal support in order to have a chance to go out to work, and their own network which is an important part of the young mother's everyday life helping them function on an everyday basis but in addition they also need access to contacts of the same age outside the family and to meet other young mothers in similar situations.

The purpose of this study was: (1) to investigate Kuwait University (KU) students' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help; and (2) to investigate if family, friends, and societal support played a role in the student's decision to seek professional psychological help as measured by the Family, Friends, and Societal Support Scale (FFSS), which was developed by the author. Other assessment tools used in the study included: (1) Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPHS) as developed by Fischer and Turner (1970); (2) Orientation Toward Utilization of Social Resources (OTUSR) as developed by Vaux, Burda, and Stewart (1986); (3) a modified Life Stress Events Scale (LSE) based on 18 items selected from the 43 items Social Readjustment Scale published by Holmes and Rahe (1967); and (4) Demographic Data Sheet (DDS). A total of 529 participants completed all five assessment tools. The results indicated that KU students have less favorable attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help than groups studied by other researchers. The results also supported previous research, which found females, in general, to have more favorable attitudes toward seeking professional help than males. Individuals who received previous counseling were more likely to have favorable attitudes toward seeking professional help than those who did not receive such help. Students who majored or minored in psychology had more favorable attitudes toward counseling than those who were not psychology majors or minors. The newly developed scale, FFSS, was an effective predictor of KU students' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help and explained more variance in ATSPPHS scores than any other predictors used in the study. / Ph. D.