The aim of this paper is to analyse the extent, content and consequences of family caregiving among middle-aged women and men in Sweden today. The analysis focuses on gender and level of education, using data on persons aged 45-66 years from a nationally representative postal survey (n=3630) conducted in 2013. Of the responde...

This article explores and analyses, with the help of both client and social worker data on 423 applications for social assistance in Sweden, (i) the extent to which social assistance benefits and labour market strengthening measures are granted and (ii) factors concerning clients as well as social workers that are associated ...

This paper presents findings from a study of judgements concerning 137 children (13–18 years) where protection by the Swedish Social Services was applied for. The paper explores the disclosure of physical, sexual and emotional child abuse including experiences of domestic violence and the process following a disclosure. A cen...

This paper addresses child abuse and the Social Services protection andbuilds upon a study of verdicts concerning § 2 Care of Young PersonsAct (CYPA). The aim was to explore the extent of, and whatcharacterised, the violence the children were being subjected to. Acentral finding was that of all the applications of § 2 CYPA du...

Active labour market policies and programs (ALMPs) have over the lastdecades been established as main instruments to promote the transitionfrom welfare to work. In this article we study strategies employed bySwedish municipalities to help recipients ending spells of socialassistance take-up. By using a combination of quantita...

Background: Children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) have exceedingly high rates of health problems. Their poor health tends to persist across adolescence and into young adulthood, resulting in increased risks of mortality. Yet, very little is known about this group’s mortality risks later in life. The aim of this study was ...

Background: Although being personal in relationships with service users is commonly described as an important aspect of the way that professionals help people with severe mental problems, this has also been described to bring with it a need to keep a distance and set boundaries. Aims: This study aims to expl...

Background: Few studies have examined the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and disability pension (DP). The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between different ACEs, cumulative ACEs, and DP, and the mediating role of school performance. Methods: We used a Swedish cohort of 522 880 ind...

Numerous children around the world are forced to make multiple moves with their mothers in and out of refuges for abused women. Each time, they experience a sudden upheaval of their familiar environment. For these children, domestic violence and flight from violence is not an isolated event but part of their upbringing. Few s...

This article presents cross-country comparisons of trends in for-profit nursing home chains in Canada, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States. Using public and private industry reports, the study describes ownership, corporate strategies, costs, and quality of the 5 largest for-profit chains in each country. Th...

Knowledge concerning the social services’ use of the Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act 1990:52 (CYPA) is relatively scarce, especially when it comes to the protection of adolescents victimized by abuse. The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate and discuss different conceptualisations of abuse, adolescents...

Most developed countries have introduced significant changes in housing and longterm care policies for older people. Simultaneously, there is increasing policy and economic emphasis on extending working lives and on changes to pension schemes. These changes have combined to have negative consequences for working-age family ca...

In Sweden, residential care for children to a great extent takes place in a care market, and a precondition for private care providers to enter the market is a licence issued by the state. The aim of the study is to describe and analyse the regulatory conditions for and output of licensing in the market of residential care fo...

International research has consistently reported that children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) have poor outcomes in young adulthood. Yet, little is known about their outcomes in midlife. Using prospective data from a cohort of more than 14,000 Swedes born in 1953, of which nearly 9% have been placed in OHC, this study exami...

This article investigates how treatment factors are described by different client groups and by treatment staff. The material consists of interviews with clients (n = 81) and treatment staff (n = 18). The analysis focuses on two central themes – the importance of the treatment group and of the treatment staf...

Little is known about developmental outcomes in midlife of persons who were placed in out-of-home care (OHC) in childhood. Utilizing longitudinal Swedish data from a cohort of more than 14,000 individuals who we can follow from birth (1953) to the age of 55 (2008), this study examines midlife trajectories of social, economic,...

Today more men work in the long-term care sector, but men are still in the minority. Little is known about men's experiences in care work, and the dilemmas and opportunities they face because of their gender. This article focuses on men care workers' integration into the organization and flow of nursing home work as perceived...

Children whose parents experience adverse social, economic, or health-related living conditions are more likely to face similar types of disadvantage in their adult life. However, a limitation of many earlier studies is that they do not account for the multidimensionality of the concept of living conditions, and that the chil...

This paper builds on recent research on the fortunes of universalism in European social policy by tracing the development of eldercare policy in four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Six dimensions of universalism are used to assess whether and how eldercare has been universalised or de-universalised in ...

Research indicates that a number of psychosocial interventions are effective for reducing behavioural problems in youth. These interventions are now often included on best practice lists aiming to facilitate informed treatment choices among practitioners. However, analyses in neighbouring research areas have highlighted serio...

The aim of this study is, by analysing children's and young people's discourses, to investigate their strategies in response to domestic violence episodes, in relation to their age. The empirical data come from individual interviews with children and young people (ages 8–20 years) who had experienced domestic violence and liv...

We used a regional sample of children in long-term foster care to investigate the prevalence of placement breakdown in adolescence, and to assess risk factors/risk markers for placement disruption. The sample consisted of all 136 foster children in the region, born 1980–1992, who on their 12th birthday had been in the same fo...

At a policy level, governments increasingly stress the importance of children's rights and their ability to participate in decision-making in child welfare services. An example of this is that the Swedish inspectorate targeting children in residential care is required to consult children and to take account of their opinions....

Previous studies have shown that paired reading, a structured literacy intervention, is a promising method for improving looked-after children's literacy skills. The aim of this study was to explore variations in foster carers' experiences of conducting the intervention. Interviews were carried out with 15 Swedish foster care...

The manual- based prevention program Aggression Replacement Training (ART) is used in treatment of young people with behavioral problems. This thesis is based on two attempts to evaluate ART in Sweden. Using ART as an example, the aim of the thesis is to describe and analyze how a manual-based program is spread and applied wi...

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate howcare managerswent about in theirwork with older people living at homeand having alcohol abuse problems. Method: Six focus group interviews and one interview with two participants were carried out. In total, 23 care managers from five different municipalities participated. Resul...

Summary

In social work practice, the role of substance use is often encountered in the context of other social problems such as child abuse and domestic violence. This article compares descriptions of important factors for initiating and maintaining positive changes among male and female clients treated for alcohol and/...

The aim of this thesis is to study how cannabis is constructed in contemporary Sweden, which policy responses are promoted as rational, and how international cannabis trends are received in this context. The four papers are the result of analyzing empirical material from three different sub-studies: 1) a qualitative study of ...

The aim of this study is to investigate the consequences for linked lives ofentering into new intimate relationships in later life. The empirical data isbased on qualitative interviews with 28 Swedes aged 63 to 91 years, whohave established a new intimate relationship after the age of 60 years or arecurrently dating. Theories...