During the last decade a number of studies have been published that investigate how the most fundamental aspect of political organization, the regime type, affects population health. The results unanimously show that citizens of democracies live longer and healthier lives than citizens of non-democracies. Many explanations for this have been suggested, among these are that democracies redistribute more and invest more in salutogenic resources, and that the tendency of dictatorships to control the media negatively affects the ability to spread information crucial to public health. When these mechanisms are controlled for, however, it turns out that democracy has a large residual correlation with for example life expectancy, which suggests that other mechanisms are also involved.In this paper two new mechanisms regarding the possible psychosocially mediated health effects of the regime type are investigated, namely political repression, and the possible negative effects this might have on the levels of chronic stress, and autonomy, which connects to a large previous literature in social epidemiology. In the paper an ecological cross-country design is used and country-level data, provided mainly by the World Bank and Freedom House, is analyzed with a simple multiple OLS-regression model.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to discuss how young people view their possibilities of exercising power and influence in Swedish society and politics. To accomplish this we have used several different sorts of relevant material. As an introduction, we review the development of the Swedish research concerning youths, with focus on the development in the last two decades of the twentieth century. We continue with a study of important Swedish youth-political documents, especially of the Government Bill På ungdomars villkor: Ungdomspolitik för demokrati, rättvisa och framtidstro On the terms of the youth: Youth-policy promoting democracy, justice and hopes for the future. The Bill is the foundation of a new youth-policy in Sweden.

The most common preventive and treatment service for children in child welfare services in Sweden is the contact family program. The number of children who are involved in the program has steadily increased. Usually it is a single mother who apply for or is offered this service. The aim with a contact family is that the parent should get respite and that the child should have its network enlarged and sometimes get a male role model.The purpose of this study was to look into how children´s perspective was considered in the contact family process. I have studied the process in order to see how it works and to see to what extent children is participating.

What can make us identify ourselves with places? Why do we feel stronger for certain environments? Is it possible to change the identity and how can we do it? What exactly is building identity on a site, what elements it is safest to hang on to when the wind of change is blowing? In this paper, I?m going to discuss the subject identity in different ways and from different angles. Important questions I have had, has been how to analyze a site and what is the importance of identity and the possibility of changing it?The first part of the paper aims to provide an introduction to the concept of identity. I'm giving a short explanation of what identity is and how places relate to identity.

Research has shown positive correlations between global self-esteem and physical activity, as well as between global self-esteem and school performance. However, research is ambiguous and other variables have shown importance for global self-esteem. This study aims to investigate the correlations between global self-esteem and physical activities, school performance and social participations within high-school students in the northern part of Sweden. The study also investigates gender differences regarding correlations between the variables. The study was conducted using a questionnaire that included Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and self-rated physical activity, social participation and grades in Swedish, English and mathematics.

Bakgrund:I den svenska skolan har det under en längre tid funnits olika pedagogiska, beslutsbaserade rollspel i undervisningen. Nu har skolan digitaliserats, vilket har öppnat upp för datorspel i undervisningen, främst inom matematik och språkliga ämnen. Samhällskunskapen är ett mer komplext ämne att reproducera och därför har inte dataspel i undervisningen använts i lika stor utsträckning. I och med den tekniska utvecklingen, kan spel återskapa mer komplexa företeelser och har därför möjligheten att inkluderas i fler skolämnen än tidigare. Spelindustrin är idag i en position, grafiskt och tekniskt, där det går att simulera hela länder, historiska händelser och hela ekonomier med varierande komplexitet.

Human Papilloma virus (HPV) can lead to cervical cancer, a common form of cancer in Sweden and globally. A vaccine has been developed for the most carcinogenic strains of HPV. In Sweden it is planned that the vaccine be included in the public national vaccination program for children. The aim of this study was to illustrate attitudes towards future sexual habits and preventive cervical cancer screening among young women and parents of girls vaccinated against HPV. This study is a part of a larger project where interviews with young women aged 17 to 26 years and parents of girls aged 13 to 17 years compose the foundation.

The purpose of this study is to describe how the employee appraisal is perceived by managers, employees and representatives from human resources departments. The empirical material con-sists of 15 interviews: respondents were two representatives of the human resources departments, four unit managers and nine employees who work at a state institution or municipal management. In the study, I adopt a sociocultural perspective, with the communicative relational perspective. The latter is a special education perspective in which the interpenetration of participation, com-munication and learning emphasized.The result shows that the majority of employees would like to see that the talks will be held more frequently than once a year. One of the managers has in cooperation with his co-workers devel-oped a model based on that each year, in addition to salary talks, have an individual conversation, a conversation with each group and individual follow-up talks.

AbstractThe purpose of my study was to examine how four social studies teachers in upper secondary school interprets the democratic educational mission and core values, and if they believe that the same values are tools to influence the students' democratic approach and if they think it is possible. It is also the study's minor purpose to make an analysis of my findings and previous research in the area to explain any similarities or differences in the social studies teacher's interpretation and practice of the democratic educational mission and core values. I used qualitative semi-structured interviews as a method in which the interview questions were based on my research questions. The two criteria I had for my sample of respondents was that there would be social studies teacher at a upper secondary school and that I wanted to have two of each sex. Their interpretation and how they think they practice the democratic educational mission and core values are similar.

Work environment activities, such as work health promotion, can take place at different levels - though the best result is obtained when all levels can interact. The overall aim with this study was to examine the impact of health promotion on work related well-being and stress in an industrial company. The focus was on employee experience of and participation in company initiated wellness activities. A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in which parts of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ II) were used to examine factors in the psychosocial work environment, and well-being was examined with the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). In all 303 employees (50 %) responded to the survey.

AbstractIn this thesis we analyze how institutions describe the dichotomy between ?problem? and ?resource? when dealing with young adults. We also analyze the consequences of this dichotomy as it involves the younger generation's participation and group identity in today's society. Dichotomies and New Institutionalism Theory is the base for this case study completed in Malmö, Sweden. We have done eight qualitative interviews with politicians and employees in Malmö municipality and a quantitative content analysis of reference documents from both the Malmö and Swedish governments.

Introduction: Parental involvement is becoming increasingly common in the paediatric health care. Parental participation at home means that parents receive instruction by nursing staff in order to perform a caregiving procedure at home.Aim: To explore parents' feelings about performing caregiving procedures on their child at home, and their experience of instruction about these, and to explore nurses? experiences of their instruction to parents.Method: A descriptive quantitative and qualitative design using questionnaires with statements to be responded by nurses and parents according to scales graded 1-10. The study was carried out during the autumn of 2009 at a pediatric unit in the University Hospital in Uppsala.Results: Ten completed questionnaires from the nursing staff and ten from parents were obtained. The mean assessment of parents' perceived safety and security, and their perception that their questions had been answered ranged between 8,6 and 9,2.

The concerning issue of declining number of hunters in North America is also apparent in Europe and Sweden. When the bulk of research found on human dimensions and hunting participation has almost exclusively been done in the United States, this report seeks to add to the needed knowledge on a national level focusing on the causes of hunter declines related to social factors within Sweden. Using hunter data reaching from commune, county to National level, this report describes the correlation between a number of variables and the hunting participation in Sweden.The typical Swedish hunter lives in an area with low population density, the person usually has higher education, the living situation is stable with no recent moving and there is relatively good access to forest land. Persons with weaker connection to the Swedish culture such as foreign citizens, people with foreign background and people born outside ?the Nordic countries? are less likely to start hunt or participate in hunting.A strong relationship was found between the favorite game, moose (Alces alces), and the amount of hunters participating in the hunting.

A general topic underlying this master thesis is how the public library is being transformed through the subversion and re-articualtion of meaning according to different discourses. The aim of the study can be divided in to levels of analysis. At the first level, the aim is to investigate how categories such as users, needs and vision are articulated in a specific case ?the visionary project Garaget in Malmö, a project which in part include a public library inspired by Idea Store. The next level of analysis sets out to explore how the case of Garaget is related to a totalizing discursive struggle over meaning within the element the public library.

The ambition of this study is to examine the discussion surrounding the Swedish participation in the European security- and defence policy. By forming feasible areas of arguments the goal is to gain further comprehension in the case of Sweden. These arguments are formed in close relation to the empirical sources; With less public funding there are economic aspects of cooperation, this could also be related to Swedish the industry of defence systems; A high level of participation in the UN is a tradition in Swedish foreign policy, the European battle groups are the perfect tool to further strengthen the UN ability in conflict management and peace keeping missions; Outside the EMU Sweden could face the political margin, to retain influence a high level of activity ought to occur in the integration process; Finally, the future position of United States and NATO is not clear, Europe needs an capacity apart the US to contribute to lasting peace and stability. The arguments are close related to each other, but the main argument is to through ESDP create a tool that will strengthen UN, there is also a wide range of economic arguments related to the industry..