Socialarbetares syn på datorspelande ungdomar
En intervjustudie om socialarbetares problematisering av ett nytt fenomen
Social constructionGaming addictionAdolescentsSocial problemsSocial konstruktionDatorspelsberoendeUngdomarSociala problem
The purpose of our study is to describe and understand whether, and if so, how social workers in school and in social services construct computer gaming adolescents as a social problem. We chose social workers who encounter adolescents with different problems. We have conducted qualitative interviews with vignettes to capture the social workers' reasoning about computer gaming adolescents and how they handle this in their work. The study shows that all social workers we interviewed had encountered adolescents with troubling computer gaming habits. In the study, all agree that computer gaming becomes a problem when it leads to deviant behaviour such as not going to school, staying up all night and so on. Social workers have adapted their work with computer gaming adolescents after their workplace policies, resources and make efforts to make it manageable to work with. One example of how they make it manageable is that they look at the problem in a context and focus on other factors than the excessive computer gaming such as poor family relationships. In the process of being established as a social problem computer gaming addiction is weak.