The thesis aims to study how rainbows families are being treated by the authorities and the surroundings. It focuses on how homosexual parents are met in society. Although, homosexuals have the legal right to have a family and enter into marriage, the social norms are still far behind and rainbows families are seen as ?the others? and abnormal.  Earlier researches have been studding how the authorities still assumes that every family are living in a heterosexual family constellation. By this assumption they exclude families who are not living in a heterosexual family.

The purpose of this degree project is to obtain a greater understanding of how the support for abused immigrant women is designed and if these measures respond to the women?s own wishes and needs. I also want to investigate the possible advantages and disadvantages, there are under the social ser­vi­ces and voluntary organizations (NGOs) and women themselves when it comes to spe­cific sup­port measures for immigrant women. On which basis have these support measures been designed and what experience or research starting points are based on? To what extent do they answer to women?s needs according to the staff, and to the women's own view?The study is based on qualitative data consisting of five interviews and one case report of an abused woman.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether parents that obtain long-term maintenance support in Enköping, consider the support as adequate when trying to meet their children's basic needs. The thesis also intends to investigate whether parents experience that their children, because they receive income support, have been socially excluded or stigmatized in their daily lives because of the family?s maintenance support. Further, the thesis aims to examine if there are any discrepancies in the above mentioned issue in relation to how long the parents have received maintenance support. Theoretical starting points used in this thesis mainly consist of the child perspective, social exclusion and the stigmatization theory.

The purpose of this study was to describe experiences in daily social life of parents of children with psychotic illness. Five parents with long-term experience of psychotic illness have been interviewed. The frame of reference in emotion theories of Thomas Scheff and Randall Collins have been used to analyze the results. The study is qualitative and has a phenomenological approach to shed lights of meanings in daily social life. The following meanings was found: Openness with certain reservation shows that honesty is important for the feeling of solidarity, Social expectations in daily life describes the parents´own expectations as well as expectations from others.

The aim of this study was to provide an understanding of the situation of an often forgotten group in foster care, the carers? own children. Our main focus was to explore this group?s experience of foster care, their experience of participating in caring for the foster children and their possible need of support and help. Our chosen method was qualitative interviews with six adult children of foster carers, two men and four women.

The purpose of this article is to examine issues concerning quality assurance in the Swedish family counselling. To obtain the purpose following factors have been analysed: what kind of requirements/criteria are put on the companies/practitioners, what the respondents think about the lack of common standards and criteria and their opinions concerning ?Lagen om valfrihetssystemet?. Monitoring of criteria, privatisation and increased competition are other factors that have been analyzed. The material was obtained from the family counsellors own association and was analyzed in the light of previous research and theories regarding the quality of family counselling however we also considered theories about quality within social work in general.

The purpose of this study was to within a Swedish context and from five persons of foreign descent stories study how they have been affected by interpreting for their parents during their childhood and how this has affected the relationships within the family. Studies conducted in an American context have shown that children interpreting for their parents in everyday situations are prone to undertake roles similar of a family leader. Previous studies also show an increased danger of depression among children who interpreted for their parents. The study was conducted by the use of semi-structured interviews with five male respondents with a varying ethnic background. Using Antonovsky´s theoretical formulation ?sense of coherence? we were able to determine that although our respondents during their childhood were subjected to a large amount of stressful elements they also maintained a high sense of well-being.

The purpose of our study is to examine whether stress among social workers is present, and if so, what strategies they and their supervisors use to manage work-related stress. The study is based on a qualitative method. The data consist of interviews, with six social workers and three supervisors. The study?s theoretical framework is based on KASAM, SOC-sense of coherence by Antonovsky, demand- control- support model by Karasek & Theorell, stress theory by Hans Selye and coping strategies by Lazarus.

This essay studies the concept of "livspusslet", a term in swedish that directly translates as "the jigsaw puzzle of life". In recent public debate it has been used to articulate issues concerning the combination of family life and a professional career. The empirical material consists of newspaper articles from nationwide daily newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet between 2009 and 2011. The concept of "livspusslet" relates to the debate about family values, gender equality and the public view on the issue of combining family life with a career. The widespread use of the concept indicates that the social practices surrounding the debate over family policy is shifting.

Much of the everyday work of teachers in pre-schools, schools and youth centers is based on experience. This study is a qualitative interview study intended to make visible the experiences of pre-school teachers in situations when children are considered to be in need of special support. I have looked at pre-school teachers? descriptions of the kinds of situations in which a child is estimated to be in need of special support, what teachers look for in a child to identify it as a child in need of special support in a specific situation, and how the teachers define special support. Both this study and previous research show that children?s estimated need of support depends on the situation and context the child is in. The pre-school teachers in this study identify common situations where children are estimated to be in need of special support, namely: in interaction with others, in structured situations, during changes of activities and during free play.

Placing children in foster care is today considered the best alternative for children unable to stay in their biological environment. A nuclear family consisting of a father, a mother and a child is the most common family structure within foster care today. The purpose of this thesis is to gain insight on the family norms that control the foster care system. It's a qualitative study based on interviews with six professional social workers within the field of foster care. This method gave us empirical material, that was later analyzed from two main theories and one theoretical concept.

The purpose with this essay is to take part of the process when a family is placed on the family-institution, Trollbacken. We want to know what makes the social welfare secretaries place a family in institutional care. Has Trollbacken lived up to the social welfare secretary expectations and are the social welfare secretaries following Trollbackens recommendation regarding the follow up treatment. We also want to know to what value the social welfare secretary assigns Trollbackens investigation and are they able to see changes in the family due to the placing on Trollbacken. The method is qualitative and is based on interviews from six social welfare secretaries that work around and in West Sweden.

The aim of this study has been to create an understanding for the situation of an often forgotten group in foster care, the carers? own children. Our main focus has been the experience this group has of foster care, their experience of participation in caring for the foster children and their possible need of support and help. Our chosen method has been qualitative interviews with six adult children of foster carers, two men and four women. The theory used in this study has been Sense of Coherence.Our interviewees gave mainly a positive description of being part of a foster family even though they could give examples of difficult situation and of loss.

The purpose of this study was to examine how Swedish high school students view school staff members, in general, but in particular school counselors. The research questions focused on getting the students descriptions of the staff members roles and functions within the school. The study was conducted using focus group interviews. The answers were divided into themes and then analyzed using role theory and previous research. The results showed that the students relationships with family, friends and previous knowledge about the staff members in school, affects their willingness to seek the support of school staff members.

The purpose of our study is to examine whether stress among social workers is present, and ifso, what strategies they and their supervisors use to manage work-related stress. The study isbased on a qualitative method. The data consist of interviews, with six social workers andthree supervisors. The study?s theoretical framework is based on KASAM, SOC-sense ofcoherence by Antonovsky, demand- control- support model by Karasek & Theorell, stresstheory by Hans Selye and coping strategies by Lazarus.