I den här arbetsrapporten presenteras en studie där vi undersöker socionomstudenters erfarenheter av olika former av nätbaserade föreläsningar inom universitet och högskoleutbildningen under covid-19 pandemin. Genom data inhämtade i en enkätstudie med totalt 141 socionomstudenter besvaras frågeställningar om betydelsen av lärarens röst och bild, tid samt interaktionen mellan deltagare i digitala föreläsningar. Studien undersöker även om studenters upplevelser av ovanstående skiljer sig åt om studenter har rätt till pedagogiskt stöd eller ej. Resultaten visar att audiovisuella intryck i form av lärares röst och bild i digitala föreläsningar är viktigt för studenterna. Gällande tidsaspekten visar studien att studenter tolererar betydligt längre föreläsningar (45 min) än vad pedagogisk litteratur förespråkar. Studenterna anser att interaktionen blir mindre vid digitala föreläsningar men att detta inte nödvändigtvis är något negativt. Studien visar inga skillnader i erfarenheter på grundval om studenter har pedagogiskt stöd eller ej.

I denna rapport presenteras resultat från en pilotstudie där BRA-samtal för barn i ekonomisk utsatthet och osäkra boendeförhållanden införts och studerats i två olika kontexter: myndighetsutövande socialtjänst respektive skyddat boende. Studien genomfördes under perioden 2019-2022 med finansiering från Stiftelsen Stockholmsfonden. Studien visar att BRA-samtal som samtalsmodell betraktat är en användbar modell i möte med målgrupperna barn i ekonomisk utsatthet och osäkra boendeförhållanden inklusive skyddat boende. De synpunkter som framkommit om behov av vissa anpassningar i den version av modellen som prövats i projektet pekar på vikten av pågående utvecklingsarbete med att anpassa BRA-samtal till yngre barn. Medan modellen varit genomförbar i skyddat boende återstår det att pröva på vilket sätt BRA-samtal kan bli genomförbara inom ramen för myndighetsutövande socialtjänst.

Seminariet utgår från en pågående studie om BRA-samtal för barn i skyddat boende. Stiftelsen Allmänna Barnhuset startade 2011 ett utvecklingsarbete med namnet BRA, Barns Rätt som Anhöriga. Utvecklingsarbetet resulterade i en modell för samtal med barn: ”BRA-samtal”. BRA-samtal är en modell utformad för att stödja personal inom kommuner, landsting/regioner och idéburna organisationer i hur de kan gå tillväga när de uppmärksammar anhöriga barns rätt till information, råd och stöd. BRA-samtal är utformad med anhöriga barn som explicit utgångspunkt. Allmänna Barnhuset fortsätter nu utveckla modellen och har bland annat anpassat den till situationen för barn i osäkra boendeförhållanden, inklusive barn i skyddat boende. Den relativt färska genomgång av situationen för barn i skyddat boende som Utredningen om ett stärkt barnrättsperspektiv för barn i skyddat boende (SOU 2017:112) gjort visar att utvecklingen för att förbättra omhändertagandet av barn i skyddat boende går långsamt och att många barn i skyddat boende fortfarande inte får den information och det stöd som de har rätt till. BRA-samtalens syfte är att ge professionella stöd i hur de kan gå tillväga när de uppmärksammar barns rätt till information, råd och stöd samt i att göra det på ett sätt som stärker barns delaktighet. Tanken bakom att pröva BRA-samtal i skyddat boende är att modellen ska bidra till att flytta fram positionerna för barn i skyddat boende avsevärt, genom att dessa samtal kan skapa förutsättningar för att stärka såväl barns rätt till information och delaktighet när de kommer till ett skyddat boende, som till delaktighet och tillgång till stöd och hjälp i ett mer långsiktigt perspektiv.

Internationally, it is established that many youth experience violence within their romantic intimate relationships (youth intimate partner violence, Youth IPV). In Sweden, however, despite a well-developed research field on domestic violence and violence against children, knowledge about the prevalence of Youth IPV remains lacking. Therefore, taking its starting point in a mixed-method study on youth IPV in Sweden, this study presents incidence rates of Youth IPV victimization in a sample of Swedish youth, as well as associated factors to such victimization. Arenas of violence – i.e. settings where the violence takes place – are also addressed. In total, 59.7% (n = 526) of study respondents reported having experienced some form of IPV either once or multiple times. The results suggest gender differences: girls reported higher rates of victimization, especially for multiple experiences of violence. Markers for IPV victimization are presented. It is shown that Youth IPV happens in arenas to which adults have access. Viable markers for victimization are suggested; furthermore, the belief that ‘only at-risk youth experience IPV’ is challenged. It is critical that Youth IPV be considered a social problem in Sweden, deserving of specific attention and interventions. Youth IPV does not happen behind closed doors, but under the same roof as adults who have the obligation to protect them (i.e. parents and school staff) and this offers unique opportunities to respond and help. Further research should investigate the support offered to IPV-exposed youth, thereby shifting the focus to how this social problem is tackled.

Youth in residential care are at risk of living in twofold exclusion when stigmatization and bullying in school become part of their everyday life. The article presents results from semi-structured interviews with ten young people in residential care. The young people’s reflections on bullying are analysed in relation to different explanatory models of bullying. Experiences of bullying are very common among youth placed in out of home care, which calls for research on bullying and youth in residential care. The aim of the study was to present understandings of bullying among youth placed in residential care and to investigate why youth in residential care report victimization to a higher degree than young people living at home. The research questions were: 1. What descriptions do young people give of the term bullying? 2. What insights can the young people’s descriptions of bullying give to the high victimization among youth in residential care? 3. How can the young people’s descriptions of bullying be understood in relation to different understandings of bullying? The main findings are the young people’s sense of exclusion. They feel stigmatized due to their placement in care and believe they have to be secretive in school about being placed in care because of the risk of bullying. Three suggestions to decrease the twofold exclusion are presented. 1. Based on knowledge that frequent changes in groups are a risk factor in regard to bullying, placement changes need to be reduced to a minimum. 2. Schools (teachers and pupils) need education concerning care environments. 3. Young people are often placed in care due to behavioural problems and therefore residential units need advantageous conditions to work with the young people’s behaviour on both individual and group level.

The dissertation analyses access to welfare resources within the areas of schooling, leisure and peer relations for youth in out of home care. The study was conducted in three counties in mid Sweden and is a replication of the recurrent Swedish surveys of living condition of children in general populations. By using the same design, children aged 13–18 (n=272) in foster care and residential care were approached. Throughout the analysis results are compared with conditions for peers living at home, based on data from the 2004/2005 survey on living conditions for children (Child-ULF). Furthermore the results are linked to the young people’s experience of psychosomatic complaints and emotional wellbeing and discussed within the theoretical framework of childhood sociology. Questions regarding society’s ability to convey resources to youth while in care as well as young persons’ potential to exercise determination while in care are also discussed. The study shows that youth in care in general have access to fewer resources than those in general populations in the studied areas. For youth in residential care the differences compared to peers living at home are substantial, while conditions for youth in foster care are more alike those of young people in general. Youth in residential care have fewer school related resources and fewer contacts with friends than peers living at home. Youth in foster and residential care are more subjected to bullying than the general population.

The overall conclusions are that society, in the form of foster parents and residential staff fails in certain areas to convey resources to youth in care. The young people’s lack of resources poses limitations to their potential to exercise self-determination while in care. The study points out areas where targeted efforts might be needed to improve the living conditions for youth in out of home care and perhaps broaden their potential to exercise self-determination while in care as well as after.

This study focuses on access to school related resources for young people (13-18 years old) in foster and residential care. The aim is to examine the degree to which environments for young people in foster and residential care provide them with relevant resources for their schooling. The study employs a welfare perspective and the concept of level of living, where, given adequate resources, young people are seen as agents with the potential to exercise self-determination in their own lives. The data are retrieved from a survey of the level of living for young people placed in out-of-home care in Sweden, an exercise that replicates national surveys of children living at home. Access to resources is then compared for the two groups. This shows that young people in care, especially residential care, lack central school related resources. Based on these results, the article discusses looked after young people's potential to exercise determination while in care.

This article focuses on the role of the school environment as a context of youth intimate partner violence. Results, derived from interviews and a survey, show that physical closeness to the abuser, control over victims’ appearance and behaviour, ostracism by peers, non-attendance, and lack of focus negatively affect academic achievement and well-being at school. Youths did not consider the school environment a sanctuary from violence but described how violence played out in school, even after the relationship ended. Furthermore, although respondents emphasised school as a suitable arena for violence prevention, few confided in school staff. The results support the need for school safety, violence prevention and cooperation with social services.

Within the discourse of childhood sociology, children are extensively regarded as “social actors”, a perspective that underlines the importance of asking children about their lives and experiences. To actually carry out such research, however, raises several methodological, principal, ethical and practical issues, especially when the research is about vulnerable children as those in out-of-home care. In this article we discuss the issue of gate-keeping when conducting research with children in foster homes or residential care. As a concrete example we use experiences from a survey of living conditions among those children.  The research questions were: 1) How and by whom is gate-keeping carried out when research is conducted among children in out of home care? 2) How could one as a researcher relate to gate-keeping carried out by adults in the environment of the children versus children’s one will? 3) What impact does gate-keeping have on results, feasibility and in a wider perspective the knowledge production regarding children in social care? The article shows that researchers needs to encounter a chain of gate-keepers to be able to get access to the children, and often attrition is high in studies with children as informants. Adults can serve both as gate-keepers and gate-openers. Our conclusion is that children in social care can be reached for research purpose, but that it is time-consuming, challenging and as a researcher one is often faced with ethical dilemmas. It is clear that there has to be a balance between gate-keeping and gate-opening. In this balance, on the one hand, it is possible for children to talk to researchers when they wish to do so, on the other hand, children must be protected so they are not exploited as research objects.

The study is a replication of the recurrent national surveys of living condition of children in normal populations. By using the same design, we approached children aged 13–18 (n=272) in foster care as well as residential care. In this article, we report results in the following dimensions: economic and material resources, psychological health and access to social support. The research questions were: (a) to what extent do children in care access resources in these dimensions? (b) are there any differences between adolescents in foster care and adolescents in residential care in this respect? and (c): are there any differences between children in care and children in general in this respect?

The study shows that children in care in general have access to less resources than those in normal populations in the welfare dimensions studied. This holds particularly for adolescents in residential care, where the differences are substantial. Thus, the care context tends to differentiate the extent to which society acts to compensate for the initial disadvantaged position from which children in care often originate. Furthermore, the article discusses how a general welfare perspective supplements and modulates the more traditional treatment perspective that is often associated with research on children in care.

In a study on living conditions among children, 13-18 years old (n = 272) in on-going foster and residential care, concepts from welfare theory and empirical research are applied. We argue that using a welfare perspective and the concept of level of living when assessing looked after children's situation provides several advantages. From this perspective, children are agents for whom access to resources will influence their discretion and possibility to act. By using concepts from welfare research and replicated national surveys of living conditions on a population of placed children, we can assess the extent to which these children enjoy such a standard while in care. In other words, it is possible to assess the compensatory capacity of state care for a population of children that has been recognized as deprived in terms of welfare resources in their birth families. The overall conclusion concerning the welfare dimensions studied is that children in care in general have less access to resources than their peers in the normal population. This holds particularly true for children in residential care, where the differences are substantial. In other words, the care context tends to differentiate the extent to which society acts to compensate for the initial disadvantaged position from which children in care often originate