We came across the discussion about the so-called duty to report (14 kap 1 § SoL) and we found some previous research, showing that preschool teachers are hesitant to report, and that they want real evidence that children are being mistreated, even though the duty to report clearly states that they have to report as soon as they suspect that a child is being mistreated. Our purpose became to study what tendencies and conditions preschool teachers and principals, placed in the municipalities of Hässleholm and Kristianstad, have to fulfil their duty to report according to the social services act, when there is a well founded suspicion that a child is being mistreated.  We split the purpose into the following research questions:   Do local guidelines about how preschool teachers should act when suspecting that a child is being mistreated exist, and are they being followed? To what degree does the staff has knowledge about these guidelines? How do preschool teachers experience the treatment from colleagues, principals and social welfare officers when they´ve done or wanted to do a report? How do preschool teachers experience the reactions of a report from custodians? We did conversational interviews with two principals, one from the municipality of Hässleholm, and one from the municipality of Kristianstad. We also made focusgroup interviews with the staff, three persons each from one of their respective preschools. Our conclusion is that preschool teachers are unwilling to report mistreatment.

Empati är att kunna uppleva och förstå andra människors känslor. Tre studier gjordes för att undersöka socialsekreterares empati för sina klienter och hur de upplever sin professionella och genuina empati. Två studier var kvantitativa och en var en mixed design. Deltagarna var 26 socialsekreterare och 57 socionomstudenter. Studie 1 och 2 visade att socialsekreterare och studenter på socionomprogrammet hade mer empati för en sympatisk person än för en osympatisk.

The purpose of this essay is to describe the organization of the Swedish Animal WelfareAgency during the time it was in operation. The Swedish Animal Welfare Agency was established in 2005 by the government who saw it as necessary in order to strengthen the protection of cruelty to animals in Sweden. However, the agency was shut down already in2007 and its responsibilities as an agency was moved back to the government and the department of agriculture. During its time in operation, the Swedish Animal Welfare Agency, received much criticism, among other things because of its interpretations of the law which were seen as too focused on details and thus ?bureaucratic?.

This study illustrates the views of working socialpedagogues when it comes to socialpedagogical and social work within compulsary schools. The focus of the study is on how social problems can be prevented and get noticed among children and youths in compulsary school, and what possibilities of development there are in preventive social work. The socialpedagogue?s capability for supporting this development, together with people that are important in the children?s and youths?s lifes, opens up new possibilities in the future for the social work in schools. The main concepts in the study is treatment and attitude, interaction and cooperation with different people inside and outside the school as well as individual- and grouporientated work.

During an investigation of animal welfare in animal production, the focus has for a long time been focused on the absence of stress, suffering and injuries, and positive emotions have not been prioritized. However, in recent years that has been drastically changed. The public interest have increased for buying animal products from animals that have had a decent life, which have led to that play, exploratory behavior and other positive behaviours has come to play a significant role in welfare assessment. The welfare of cattle is difficult to assess since there is currently no ancestors to study, it is thus difficult to determine which behaviors can be regarded as natural and thus positively related, acordingly the welfare of cattle have been forgotten and research on positive emotions of cattle have not been prioritized. The aim of this study was to observe which behavior growing cattle performe, and if there was any differences of which kind of behavior that was observed, if the cattle is keept on slatted floor or on a deep straw bedding. Furthermore, antoher purpose was to investigate if the observed behaviours indicate a positive, negative or natural welfare, and if it is possible to use the observed behaviours in a welfare assessment.

The aim with this study was to learn about the experiences of field workers and welfare officers in the field of possible self-harm behavior among young people.Our problem was: Do field workers and welfare officers treat young people with deliberate self-harm differently and - How do field workers and welfare officers describe deliberate self- harm?Our study was conducted through qualitative semistructured interviews with twelve interviewee?s.The result of this study shows that there is a difference in how young people with self-harm behavior are being treated - based on their gender.One possible cause for this result could be the old tradition mindset of viewing boys and girls differently ? and thus, treating them differently when they seek help.Our study shows there is a possibility of treating boys and girls differently ? which shows that we made a thought-provoking point.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the daily press, morning and evening papers respectively, describe homeless people and their situation from a number of chosen articles. Was there a possibility to make clear if the public opinion of homelessness has changed from a media perspective during the last five years? In order to meet the purpose of the study, the authors have used discourse analysis of the chosen articles as well as the theory of social constructions and the theory of stigmatizing. The articles have been chosen from the two largest daily morning papers and the two largest evening papers. From each article many rich and close quotations are used, which subsequently have been analysed and interpreted.

Early contact with both parents is important for children and it is important to reach out to both mothers and fathers through parental education groups. Parent education program for fathers can lead to more fathers taking parental leave and becoming more involved in the care of their children. A lot of men lack support from the community after the birth of their child. The aim of this study was to illustrate district nurses? experiences of meeting first-time fathers.

Swedish law is very keen on the fact that every person should be treated equal when facing the legal system. When it comes to cases concerning children, social workers and judges are expected to strictly obey the rules of the law but at the same time make individual judgements based on the best interest of the child, something that requires a great deal of empathy and knowledge. Is it possible to live up to the maxim about equality and to simultaneously see the individual needs? With so many different parties and angles in the case, how does one manage to make a solid appraisal of the situation that truly serves the best interest of the child?The purpose of this study was to examine the capability within the social services with focus on objectivity. More specifically it's aim was to find out how the social workers and judges see their capability of being objective in the investigations concerning children.

In this essay the purpose is to show my readers some of the emotions that professional helpers may experience in their daily work. The result is based on interviews with two helpers who works with people that have a variety of problems. Problems that these helpers are facing can for instance be alcoholism/drug abuse/homelessness/psychic illness or a combination of some of these problems. The questions I´m seeking to answer is; How does these helpers look at their own role and the relationship to their clients, and how do they feel about the group of people they are working with? I will also display some experiences regarding the influence from the society and it´s responsibility towards these people.

This paper is a study of a European citizenship in relation to two different perspectives on citizenship ? universalism and pluralism - from a gender perspective. We discuss a universal citizenship with equal rights and a pluralistic citizenship with different rights (groupdifferentiated rights), in relation to women within the European Union.First, we try to decide whether the European citizenship draws towards a universal or pluralistic direction. Secondly, we discuss problems with the universal and the pluralistic citizenship in relation to women in EU. It's not evident which of them best favours women's needs and interests; both are problematic in its own way.

The main purpose of this study is to inquire whether music can function as a supportive and compensating tool for children from various kinds of social exposure. Eurhythmics is the musical method focused on, since it consciously works out of a socializing perspective. The study involves a scheme with poor children in Argentin (autumn 2005) and is based upon two interviews with women working professionally with both the social and the musical aspect of the current question. Notes from the above mentioned project are added to the interviews. The possible conclusion from the end results is that the individual as well as the dynamics of the group (as a whole) draw positive benefits from not only the music itself but also the structure and the elements of it.

The purpose of this essay was to study some selected magazine articles by examining how the concept of child poverty is produced in the public debate, and to see if the definition of the term has changed over time. The theoretical approach on which this study is based has been used as a tool to provide better understanding on the subject. Furthermore, theories of consumer society, the "collateral damage" and the theory of welfare regimes have been used. In the previous research presented in the paper focuses on linking children and families living in precarious economic conditions, consumer standards and welfare systems that characterize society.This study has a qualitative approach as it attempts to capture and increase understanding of how the concept of child poverty can be understood from a Swedish context. The study is based on newspaper articles that are studied using a structural text analysis.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate how trained social workers experience information in their daily work. The thesis focussed on three major questions: - What type of information and information sources are mostly used by the trained social workers? - What kind of information barriers are described by the participants? - How can the patterns of information seeking and information use be understood on the basis of the trained social workers professional and social context? Semi-structured interviews were carried out with trained social workers working with child welfare enquiries. My theoretical framework consists of user and context oriented theories about classifications of information, information barriers and models of information sources. My conclusions are that trained social workers working with risk assessment in child protection services, need to use different kinds of information in their daily work, such as problem information, domain information and problem-solving information.

The title of this essay is ?Collaboration between social services and schools?. Research shows that many children and youth who are badly treated are not noticed and do not receive the help that they need. This could be due to the lack of collaboration between different authorities and professionals. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how the social services and schools are collaborating in terms of children and youth who are badly treated or is at risk of being badly treated and to identify what factors make collaboration possible and hinder it.