Socialarbetarens livspussel - En kvantitativ och kvalitativ studie
The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the various factors that influence the balancebetween the working lives and family lives of social workers. The research questions posedwere: Do social workers consider there is a conflict between their working lives and familylives? Which factors make maintaining a balance between working life and family life moredifficult and which make it easier to do so? How do social workers describe equality betweenthe sexes in their own family? Regarding methodology, the selection method is strategic andcombines data sources with quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The material collectedand via online survey, targeted to 120 municipal employees social workers in a district councilin a big city, and through interviews with four social workers in a rural community. The studywas performed using gender theory and the demand-support-control model. The conflict fromwork to family life was described to be significantly higher than the opposite, which issupported in previous research. Social workers experienced that their tasks are constantlyincreasing and they could not stop thinking about work during their leisure, but autonomy intheir work was relatively good. Support from supervisors, colleagues or life partner and anegalitarian gender contract were major factors in establishing a better balance betweenworking life and family life.