The Aim of this study was to gain an understanding of how educational welfare officers reason and act when there is a suspicion of child maltreatment. An employee who regularly meets children where there is a suspicion of child maltreatment is required by law to report it to social services. Five educational welfare officers from the Kronoberg county, as well as one from an adjacent county, received vignettes with three fictive accounts of children who were being maltreated.  The educational welfare officers were then interviewed and asked questions concerning the vignettes. The results and following analysis showed that if there was a suspicion of child maltreatment, then the educational welfare officers in general reported it to the social services. However, an exception to this was when they believed it not to be in the best interest of the child to report their suspicions. The results further showed that stigma, as described by Goffman (2014), was a factor that could drive the educational welfare officers towards acting in a way that wasn´t in accordance to what was required by the law. The actions they took could further be understood by using Lipsky´s (2010) “Theory of discretion”, which in this study translated to whether they acted in a way that was either fully in accordance to the law or in a more dubious way.

The purpose of this study was to understand what the professionals experiences are of stressed youth. We did a qualitative study with interviewing three school nurses, one welfare officer and two recreation leaders. Research is saying that stress is increasing among the youth and that girls are more stressed than boys. It also says that medium is a big consequent for that (ex. Brun M. Sundblad, 2006). In our study we found out that the professionals thought the same thing and they meant that Internet and mobile telephones was the biggest problem for being stressed. We analysed the results with the help of Giddens (2007), Frank (2009) and Marmot (2006) theories. Giddens (2007) is saying that our society is changing and that we are becoming more self-centred individuals. He also says that our society is moving very fast and that the communications and information is spreading fast all over our world. Frank (2009) means that people are always comparing them self’s with people around them. It is the rich groups that are increasing the consumption in our society, not medium. Marmot (2006) is saying that people’s health has a big deal to do with if you are living among the same kind of people, with the same amount of  material welfare or not. If you have a lot of money and lives on a street with the same kind of people, you’re health will be better, then if it would be big differences among you. These aspects was something that we found out during our study, which the professionals did not mention, they blamed the medium for allot of the stress.

<p>The purpose of this study was to understand what the professionals experiences are of stressed youth. We did a qualitative study with interviewing three school nurses, one welfare officer and two recreation leaders. Research is saying that stress is increasing among the youth and that girls are more stressed than boys. It also says that medium is a big consequent for that (ex. Brun M. Sundblad, 2006). In our study we found out that the professionals thought the same thing and they meant that Internet and mobile telephones was the biggest problem for being stressed. We analysed the results with the help of Giddens (2007), Frank (2009) and Marmot (2006) theories. Giddens (2007) is saying that our society is changing and that we are becoming more self-centred individuals. He also says that our society is moving very fast and that the communications and information is spreading fast all over our world. Frank (2009) means that people are always comparing them self’s with people around them. It is the rich groups that are increasing the consumption in our society, not medium. Marmot (2006) is saying that people’s health has a big deal to do with if you are living among the same kind of people, with the same amount of  material welfare or not. If you have a lot of money and lives on a street with the same kind of people, you’re health will be better, then if it would be big differences among you. These aspects was something that we found out during our study, which the professionals did not mention, they blamed the medium for allot of the stress.</p>

The school can be seen as a place that reflects the wider community. Here is a school welfare officer an important representative of the school social work. The main subject of our study is to clarify how the school welfare officers’ talk about documentation in the individual meeting with the pupil. Through individual interviews with five school welfare officers in elementary schools in three municipalities in the southern part ofSweden, we have attempted to explore these main research question. In addition to qualitative interviews we have accomplished a survey study that included 178 school welfare officers throughout the country. The result of our two studies demonstrates the school welfare officers’ free work where the choice to document or not is wide. Even on those occasions when documentation is an obligation, they have an opportunity to choose how much they should expose the pupil. The study also shows on an uncertainty as regard to record in general and where the written words end up in particular. The school welfare officer seems to be comfortable in his/her free role, but still want some sort of guidelines to enhance the pupil’s equal rights. They have an apologetic or justifying way of talking (accounts) about the documentation, which can be due to their free role and the fact that documentation has a tendency to be difficult to interpret in the law.

Although Sweden has a long tradition of compulsory school attendance, there are children that do not attend. Previous research confirms that there are many concepts used to describe school absenteeism. Considered that categorization involves an aspect of power that adds attributes to these children based on stereotypic conceptions of the category, this fact seems problematic. By analyzing field related articles, the aim of this study is to reveal linguistic constructions of school absenteeism by means of discourse analysis. Consequences of discourses will be analyzed through previous research about categorization and Foucault’s theory of power. The main results of the study display several approaches to describe school absenteeism, of which we compiled five different discourses. They are presented as the bureaucratic perspective, the disciplinary perspective, the adaptation perspective, the social environment perspective and the family perspective. Each discourse describes a comprehension of deviance and normality, which affects the opportunities of wellbeing amongst children and forms the prerequisite of professional interventions. Providing help to children defined as deviants due to school absenteeism implicates exposure of pastoral power. The study concludes the need for a sensitive language utilization amongst school welfare officers.

This thesis has examined unmarried fathers in two parishes of Umeå in northern Sweden during the period 1897-1937. The main focus is on the consequences that ensued the legislation that formalized men’s obligations towards children born out of wedlock, which was passed on June 14th, 1917. The period chosen for this thesis analysis is twenty years before and after 1917. This enables a comparison between the society of the late 19th century and a society smitten by a modernised social reform in the early 20th century. To investigate the subject matter, records of birth and baptismal have been studied with a primary focus on patterns concerning fathers of illegitimate children. Both parishes presented a considerably small number of unmarried fathers compared to married men, throughout the entire period. The town of Umeå had the largest overall share in comparison with the countryside. It was pre-supposed, based on previous research, that the social class to which most unmarried fathers belonged, were in the lower ranks of society. This turned out to be an accurate assumption based on statistics from both parishes presented in this thesis. The statistics did not present any men from the upper class as fathers of children born out of wed-lock. Monetary as well as societal pressure were identified as possible explanations why some men avoided fathering illegitimate children. All in all, the legislation was interpreted as some-what successful in Umeå; achieving an apparent reduction in total shares of unknown fathers, a rising number of pledged paternities and presenting a few examples of men sentenced to fa-therhood in court. The legislation also provided unmarried women with a voice in legal matters concerning their illegitimate children.

The aim of this study was to receive a rapt understanding of how child-welfare officer’s reasons about the meaning of attachment theory, from the child´s best, in placements of a child. The aim was also to examine the possibilities child-welfare officer´s feel they have to work with the child´s best and attachment in focus. The study has a qualitative approach and the empirical material is collected thru semi-structured interviews. The theoretical framework used is attachment theory, the child´s best and street-level bureaucracy. The result of the study shows that child-welfare officers have equivalent knowledge, experiences and thoughts about the meaning of attachment theory for a favorable development in foster children. The study concludes is that more knowledge about attachment theory is necessary and child-welfare officers demands methods to better assess attachment patterns in children. The child-welfare officers express frustration when they talk about matters in the "grey area" and situations where different perspectives clashes and the child´s best end up in the background. / Studiens syfte var att erhålla en fördjupad förståelse för hur socialsekreterare i den sociala barnavården resonerar om anknytningens betydelse, utifrån barnets bästa, vid familjehemsplacering av ett barn. Syftet var också att ta reda på vilka möjligheter socialsekreterare upplever sig ha att arbeta med barnets bästa och anknytning i fokus. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och materialet är insamlat genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Den teoretiska tolkningsram som används är anknytningsteori, barnets bästa samt gräsrotsbyråkrati. Studiens resultat visar att socialsekreterare har likvärdiga kunskaper, erfarenheter och tankar om anknytningens betydelse för en gynnsam utveckling hos familjehemsplacerade barn. Studiens slutsats är att mer kunskap om anknytningsteori är nödvändig och socialsekreterare efterfrågar metoder för att bättre kunna bedöma anknytningsmönster hos barn. Socialsekreterarna ger uttryck för frustration när de berättar om så kallade gråzonsärenden och situationer där olika perspektiv är i konflikt och barnets bästa hamnar i skymundan.

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine how a selection of social welfare officers based on the principle of the best interest of the child construct a minimum level of the material standard in a home. Another purpose was to examine whether different units with varying socioeconomic prerequisites in the municipality of Stockholm construct this level differently.</p><p>The method used in this study was Sociology of Law and two focus groups were used for the gathering of the data. A social constructive theory, a class perspective using concepts of Bourdieu and a perspective of law were used to analyse the material of data.</p><p>The results showed that the courses of action varied from enactment and the policies of the municipality of Stockholm, unspecified theories of the development of children, the conception of what is normal and what children needs, the context in which they work, the development of the society and what they estimate that children needs when attending school. The results also showed a difference between the two units concerning the minimum level of the material standard in a home</p>

The purpose of this study was to examine how a selection of social welfare officers based on the principle of the best interest of the child construct a minimum level of the material standard in a home. Another purpose was to examine whether different units with varying socioeconomic prerequisites in the municipality of Stockholm construct this level differently. The method used in this study was Sociology of Law and two focus groups were used for the gathering of the data. A social constructive theory, a class perspective using concepts of Bourdieu and a perspective of law were used to analyse the material of data. The results showed that the courses of action varied from enactment and the policies of the municipality of Stockholm, unspecified theories of the development of children, the conception of what is normal and what children needs, the context in which they work, the development of the society and what they estimate that children needs when attending school. The results also showed a difference between the two units concerning the minimum level of the material standard in a home

The purpose of this paper has been to reach a greater understanding in how moral inflicts social workers way of handling everyday situations. In what way, if in any way, moral comes to play a part in the making of decisions. In order to reach this understanding we have interviewed two different groups of social workers which we also later on came to compare . One of the groups contained six interviewees and the other group contained five interviewees. Both of these groups were in the ages between 27 – 52.To shed some light over this phenomenon did we use two theoretical perspectives, first Kant’s morale theory and second, consequentialistic utilitarism theory. As a result from the interviews we’ve made, we came to an understanding that the meaning of morale and in what way it can be applied in the everyday work differs between these two professional groups. One of the greater conclusions we came to make, is that one key role is the differences between both work environments, both on a social and a structural level.