Chemicals are everywhere in todays society, in humans, animals as well as nature, and they are difficult to avoid. The chemical industry is regarded to be the fastest growing industrial sector, accounting for ten percent of the global economy. A large amount of chemicals are used to produce hygiene products and cosmetics, products that in Sweden only are consumed in quantities of 110 tons per day. Researchers find it increasingly difficult to determine which chemicals that are dangerous and which that are safe, and how they might affect us in the long run. Correlations have been found between chemicals, diseases and other health effects such as cancer, allergies, reproductive and endocrine disorders.

Studies among parents of children with disabilities have shown that they experience a higher level of parenting stress as well as a lower degree of wellbeing, compared to parents of children without disabilities. However, there is a need to further explore parents? experience on this matter within a Swedish context. The aim of the current study was to examine how parents of preschool children, with and without disabilities, in Västerbotten, experience the impact of their child. A sample of 67 parents of children with disabilities and 134 parents of children without disabilities took part in the questionnaire study.

The purpose of this survey was to map out the health pf some of the 11 and 12 years old children in the city of Umeå, as well as to find out what factors intend to influense the children´s health. A questionnaire was distributed in four 6th grade classes whitin the municipality of Umeå. Two of the schools were located in the city while two were located in near villages. This selection was decided in order to map out diffrences in health related to the children´s home environment. 80 pupils took part of this study.

The society has always tried to get rid of those who do not "fit in". They doesn't follow the normal behaviour and rules and have to be "dismissed". The community has developed different kinds of institutional care for individuals with dysfunctional behaviour. Those institutions are mental hospitals and prisons. Many of these institutions put the individuals in an extreme situation since they loses their independence and freedom.

AbstractTitle: See each other on the Internet or on a café? A survey about social consequences of Internet usage. (Umgås på Internet eller på ett café? ? en studie om Internetanvändningens sociala konsekvenser.)Number of pages: 34 (including enclosures).Author: Carolin Johansson.Tutor: Else Nygren.Course: Media and Communication Studies C.Period: Fall 2007.University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The purpose is to get increased knowledge about the social consequences that may come up when young people at the age of 16-20 are using the Internet.Material/Method: The material consists of a questionnaire that I made with questions about Internet usage that 84 young people from five classes (from three different upper secondary schools) answered.Main results: To have access to a computer and Internet and the fact that broadband is more inexpensive now than before leads to an increased usage of the Internet. I found out that chatting, music/movies, searching for information and using the Internet for entertainment is what most of the participants spent the most time on while using the Internet.

By conducting qualitative interviews five pedagogues and eight children in the ages three to five have answered questions regarding environmental work in preschool.The purpose of this report was to examine how environmental work is pursued at two preschools and what children at these preschools think about environmental work. Recycling of garbage and small cultivation projects together with the children is what the pedagogues consider being the most common environmental work at their particular preschools. In the professional role of the pedagogue if can be clearly seen what special interests he or she has.Most of the children associate the forest with some kind of snack and animals. Half of the interviewed children also think about animals when they visit the forest. Half of the interviewed children also have an understanding of where peels from fruits should be tossed, but no one knows the meaning of the word environment.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate what the work situation of children's librarians looks like in the year 2000, after the changes in society which took place since the 1980's. Did the tasks of children's librarians change during the nineties, and if so, in what way and why have they changed? Which new knowledge needs emerged for children's librarians during the nineties, and what was the cause of these new needs? Finally I want to know which needs for professional development arose, and how these needs are fulfilled. The thesis is based on qualitative interviews with children's librarians, library managers, library consultants, one representative of the Swedish school of Library and Information Studies and one member of SAB's children and youth committee. The study reveals that the identity of children's librarianship is strongly associated with the stimulation of language and reading.

The thesis strives to answer the question whether there are any differences between how young customers, in comparison with older, are affected by brands when buying different products. The purpose is to get a clearer idea about the brands' importance in the future and in that way also to give guidance to companies about how to best market themselves and there products.To answer the question, an experiment was conducted with 480 respondents taking a survey where they had to rate a product after reading a short text about it. Some of the texts stated that a specific brand was behind the product while some said the product was produced by an unknown brand.The result of the study was that young people showed a greater propensity of rating products with a brand higher than products without brands, in comparison with the older respondents. This gives reason to believe that brands progressively will become an even more important tool for marketers and an unmatched asset for companies in the future..

Preschool is an important social arena for children. This might be the first time that children find themselves in a larger social context and create their first peer-relations. The aim of this study was to examine children?s peer-relations with particular focus on the acts of social exclusion and inclusion, and how children use different strategies to exclude and include each other. Another aim was to investigate how both verbal and non-verbal communication is used in these processes.This study has an ethnographic approach, and the use of video observation as a method enabled us to capture the children?s everyday interactions at preschool.Our results show that children use a number of different strategies to exclude other children that seek access to an ongoing activity to protect the interactional space that they already share.

This essay is about children in grief. This subject is very wide, therefore I have chosen to focus on childrens questions in relation to losing someone close to them. I got the idée for this study in 2004 when the tsunami hit south Asia.The result in this study reflects three different pedagogues experiences about how they have experienced childrens questions when they have lost a person near to them. During this study I have reached the knowledge that as an adult you should answer childrens questions straight and honestly. It is important that children get information about what has happened, they must get a chance to participate.

The purpose of this study is to examine how four educators in two different departments at two different preschools in Stockholm, selects children's literature in preschool and how literature is used in the activities and how much influence children have in the choice of literature. Based on qualitative interviews as a method we have interviewed pedagogues to get answers to our questions. We will also interview some children to find out how involved they are in the purchase of literature on the departments we examined. We consider the social cultural perspective to be a well rounded starting point for our survey, because the theory gives us the opportunity to study how the interaction and meetings between educators and children develop for each reading encounter. And through the analysis a thorough display between educators and children towards literature will be shown.

The purpose of this thesis has been to; based on interviews with four teachers in Stockholm city, get at picture of preschool teacher?s viewpoint on children?s influence in preschool.Research questions: How is the children`s influence looked upon by the teachers in preschool?, In what ways do children?s influence affect their learning, In what ways are the interviewed preschool teachers working with democracy in preschool?To carry out this thesis, I used the qualitative method. In the qualitative method, use is made of the interview method to collect empirical data with interviews. I interviewed four preschool teachers from three different preschools. This thesis is built upon John Dewey?s philosophical thinking as a theoretical base.The result of this thesis shows that all preschool teachers felt that the application of children?s influence in the daily activities, although complicated, is essential in their work.

This research intends to study the media's representation of unaccompanied refugee children on the basis that the media has a power in the construction of society. The focus is on whether children's vulnerability and needs are presented in the media and whether the children?s voices are heard. It is also of interest to study the agents that speak in the media concerning unaccompanied refugee children. The study is based on a theory that social reality is a construction of interaction between individuals and groups. Furthermore the study also incorporate the idea that the media, through its control of language, has power to create discourses which may affect the way different groups in society are looked upon.

Children's language development is highly connected to the success of every school. Especially when it comes to the children learning reading and writing skills, regardless of what method the schools use in order to achieve this. An early intervention can facilitate the learning of reading comprehension. Reading aloud and playing with the language learning is the greatest gift we can give our children and students. Children learn how to use a book by turning the pages and see how the words and texts are structured.

A study by Gulistan Kavak has been done about the therapy school, Liljanschool. The school handles children between the ages seven and twelve who suffer from psychosocial problems. These psychosocial problems may be the children?s? experiences of psychological trauma, attachment-difficulties and anxiety. Therapists, teachers, educators and medical professionals work at Liljanschool. The purpose of this thesis is to see how parents see their children?s? development at the school from there very first day until there last. Three questions have been formulated: How do parents of the children understand the development of the therapy that Liljanschool contributes with? How do the parents think that the school situation has been for their children? Do the school staff´s views and the parent´s views differ regarding cooperation between staff, parents and children?I have done a qualitative study.  In-depth interviews were conducted with the staff of the school and the children?s parents. The results show that the majority of respondents were positive about the school. The analysis shows that through the extension-theory, the children and parents have developed together.