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Publications (10 of 33) Show all publications
Bergman, K., Blomberg, H., Elfström, M., Olsson, S. & Östlund, G. (2025). 'You Should Be Yourself'-Secondary Students' Descriptions of Social Gender Demands. Children, 12(4), Article ID 502.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>'You Should Be Yourself'-Secondary Students' Descriptions of Social Gender Demands
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2025 (English)In: Children, E-ISSN 2227-9067, Vol. 12, no 4, article id 502Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background/Objectives: Swedish schools are mandated to counteract gender norms that restrict students' life opportunities. School personnel also bear the responsibility of fostering students' democratic responsibilities and healthy behaviors, which is crucial not only for their mental wellbeing but also for their academic performance, as stressed by the European Commission. Aim: The purpose of the present study is to explore adolescents' performativity of gender when discussing social barriers to mental and emotional wellbeing. Methods: Fifty adolescents were interviewed in small gender-divided groups, and the transcribed text was analyzed using thematic analysis. Theoretically, interactionist perspective and gender analytic discourses are applied. Results: Emotional barriers to mental wellbeing were identified based on too cogent gender norms. Boys describe challenging each other and the environment by using a social facade that includes "stoneface" and harsh language, seldom showing sadness, even among close friends. The girls' facade includes maintaining a "happy face" and trying to be attractive. Both genders underline the need for belonging, and most of them fear social exclusion from peers. According to the interviewees, it is socially acceptable for girls to display most feelings, even mental difficulties such as anxiety or phobia, but among boys, gender norms still hinder them from showing emotional vulnerabilities such as sadness and risking exclusion. Conclusions: Young people's emotional wellbeing needs to be further developed and included in the curriculum. It is time for adults to focus on boys' sadness and depressive emotions, as well as girls' aggressiveness and frankness rather than their appearance, to push the river of equality forward.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI AG, 2025
Keywords
mental wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, gendered performativity, gendered wellbeing, adolescents
National Category
Gender Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-71329 (URN)10.3390/children12040502 (DOI)001474377700001 ()40310151 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-105003402844 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2025-05-07 Created: 2025-05-07 Last updated: 2025-05-07Bibliographically approved
Harder, M., Höglander, J., Appelgren Engström, H., Holmström, I. & Blomberg, H. (2024). An integrative review of communication in a professional-parental relationship provided in child health services: An authoritarian or guiding approach. Patient Education and Counseling, 118, Article ID 108029.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>An integrative review of communication in a professional-parental relationship provided in child health services: An authoritarian or guiding approach
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2024 (English)In: Patient Education and Counseling, ISSN 0738-3991, E-ISSN 1873-5134, Vol. 118, article id 108029Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Objectives

Early parental support, provided by nurses within child health services, aims to strengthen parents in their parenthood. The aim of this integrative review is to describe communication in parental support in encounters between child health nurses and parents in child health services.

Methods

An integrative review was conducted. The databases Cinahl+ , MedLine, Psych Info, and Scopus were searched, 312 articles were screened, and 16 articles were found to be eligible.

Results

The studies included qualitative and quantitative methods, using interviews, focus group interviews, and observations. The findings show an overarching theme: The significance of mutuality in communication in a professional-parental relationship, further described in the following categories, 1) Authoritarian approach: a controlling manner, a neglecting manner, and a teaching manner; 2. Guiding approach: a counselling manner and a compliant manner.

Conclusions

The communication between nurses and parents can be understood as having several layers; the organisational context, the professional skills, knowledge, and experiences, and parents’ knowledge, expectations, and needs. There is a lack of studies of authentic communication between nurses and parents; thus, future research is warranted.

Practice implications:

The authoritarian and guiding approaches in parental support show the required skills a nurse is expected to have, but sufficient organizational prerequisites are also crucial.

Keywords
Child health nurses, Child health services, Communication, Integrative review, Support
National Category
Nursing
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-64635 (URN)10.1016/j.pec.2023.108029 (DOI)001103455500001 ()2-s2.0-85175006552 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-10-31 Created: 2023-10-31 Last updated: 2023-12-07Bibliographically approved
Östlund, G. & Blomberg, H. (2024). ”Det känns inte jättebra”: hur digital teknik kan främja barns berättelser i barnutredningar. Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, 31(1), 133-154
Open this publication in new window or tab >>”Det känns inte jättebra”: hur digital teknik kan främja barns berättelser i barnutredningar
2024 (Swedish)In: Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, ISSN 1104-1420, E-ISSN 2003-5624, Vol. 31, no 1, p. 133-154Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The aim was to study children’s participation in child investigations both when a digital application was used and when it was not used. Theoretically, the children’s participation was explored through positioning- and rhetorical analyses of the documentation. In investigative texts where the digital tool was not used, the children’s perspective was presented, but with a lower degree of agency. Two ways of motivating evidence have been identified. One is to alternate the official text, which contains theoretical concepts such as risk and protection factors, with more general descriptions from the child's situation. In the second approach, the genre of authority has been used together with the child’s own words so that the child is given more agency in the investigative text. The proposals for decisions are in both cases presented from the authority genre and legitimised via “the child's best interest” and “risk and protection factors” as well as through weaving in witnesses as a rhetorical resource, where children’s voices might be used as evidence. When comparing child investigations with or without the use of the digital tool, the assessments have similar illations. However, a digital tool adapted to children’s perspectives can increase participation in terms of their agency and presence in the investigative text.

National Category
Languages and Literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-69279 (URN)10.3384/svt.2024.31.1.5019 (DOI)
Available from: 2024-12-05 Created: 2024-12-05 Last updated: 2024-12-05Bibliographically approved
Östlund, G., Rautell Lindstedt, P., Curuklu, B. & Blomberg, H. (2023). Developing welfare technology to increase children’s participation in child welfare assessments: an empirical case in Sweden. European Journal of Social Work
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Developing welfare technology to increase children’s participation in child welfare assessments: an empirical case in Sweden
2023 (English)In: European Journal of Social Work, ISSN 1369-1457, E-ISSN 1468-2664Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The purpose of the article is to describe and problematise the practice-initiated idea of developing a digital tool for children in child welfare investigations and whether and how this welfare technology is useful for social workers. The results include interview data and descriptions of the research process. The social workers are of the opinion that the digital application increases the possibilities for children’s participation in child investigations, even though their main focus is to create an alliance with the parents. During the research process the digital tool has developed from an empirical idea to a conversation tool and been tested with different user groups. However, the law on procurement limits the possibilities for data storage if the digital tool is to be used in the future. In sum, in order to develop child protection work further, more practice-based research needs to be conducted so that researchers can develop the practice’s ideas and identify the obstacles, opportunities, organisational conditions and development needs. The social workers in this study believe that the digital tool is useful for accessing children's perspectives and experiences, even though relational work with children is not their main task in child welfare investigations. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2023
Keywords
Child welfare assessments, children’s participation, digital tools, human-computer interaction, social work, article, child, child protection, child welfare, conversation, human, human computer interaction, information storage, interview, social worker, Sweden
National Category
Social Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-63969 (URN)10.1080/13691457.2023.2243053 (DOI)001043187300001 ()2-s2.0-85166940233 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-08-16 Created: 2023-08-16 Last updated: 2023-12-06Bibliographically approved
Lövenmark [Åberg] [Engström], A. & Blomberg, H. (2023). Diskursanalys (3ed.). In: Henricson, M. (Ed.), Vetenskaplig teori och metod: från idé till examination inom vård- och hälsovetenskap (pp. 423-434). Studentlitteratur AB
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Diskursanalys
2023 (Swedish)In: Vetenskaplig teori och metod: från idé till examination inom vård- och hälsovetenskap / [ed] Henricson, M., Studentlitteratur AB, 2023, 3, p. 423-434Chapter in book (Refereed)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Studentlitteratur AB, 2023 Edition: 3
National Category
Nursing
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-64892 (URN)9789144161389 (ISBN)
Available from: 2023-11-29 Created: 2023-11-29 Last updated: 2023-12-06Bibliographically approved
Lövenmark [Åberg] [Engström], A., Stier, J. & Blomberg, H. (2023). The establishing of subject positions in Swedish news media discourses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Media Culture and Society
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The establishing of subject positions in Swedish news media discourses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic
2023 (English)In: Media Culture and Society, ISSN 0163-4437, E-ISSN 1460-3675Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the global media since 2020. To a large extent, it isvia the news media that the public has learned about the risks, levels of danger, governmentalregulations and mandatory actions. This article highlights the subject positions constructedby the Swedish news media from January 2020 to February 2021 in reports about thepandemic. The result shows that citizens can be active-passive or solitary solidarity, thesepositions appeal to individual accountability, thus potentially shaping and fostering citizensin line with the Swedish government’s wider response to the pandemic. The news media’simages are of self-regulated citizens who govern and discipline themselves and othersaccording to the current discourses, all of which simultaneously evoke fear, togethernessand hope. The ideological dilemmas for citizens are whether to be active-passive or, ifnecessary, switch to the solitary solidarity subject position.

Keywords
discourse analysis, ideological dilemma, news media, pandemic, subject position, Sweden
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Research subject
Public Health Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-61935 (URN)10.1177/01634437221147636 (DOI)000913898000001 ()2-s2.0-85146600265 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-02-17 Created: 2023-02-17 Last updated: 2025-02-20Bibliographically approved
Blomberg, H., Östlund, G., Lindstedt Rautell, P. & Curuklu, B. (2022). Children helping to co-construct a digital tool that is designed to increase children’s participation in child welfare investigations in Sweden.. Qualitative Social Work, 21(2), 367-392
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Children helping to co-construct a digital tool that is designed to increase children’s participation in child welfare investigations in Sweden.
2022 (English)In: Qualitative Social Work, ISSN 1473-3250, E-ISSN 1741-3117, Vol. 21, no 2, p. 367-392Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

How do children (aged 6-12 years) understand and make use of a digital tool that is under development? This article builds on an ongoing interdisciplinary research project in which children, social workers (the inventers of this social innovation) and researchers together develop an interactive digital tool (application) to strengthen children's participation during the planning and process of welfare assessments. Departing from social constructionism, and using a discursive narrative approach with visual ethnography, the aim of the article is to display how the children co-construct the application and contribute with "stories of life situations" by drawing themselves as characters and the places they frequent. The findings show that the children improved the application by suggesting more affordances so that they could better create themselves/others, by discovering bugs, and by showing how it could appeal to children of various ages. The application helped the children to start communicating and bonding when creating themselves in detail, drawing places/characters and describing events associated with them, and sharing small life stories. The application can help children and social workers to connect and facilitate children's participation by allowing them to focus on their own perspectives when drawing and sharing stories.

National Category
Social Sciences Health Sciences
Research subject
Social Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-53277 (URN)10.1177/1473325021990864 (DOI)000618471700001 ()2-s2.0-85100548381 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2018-01319
Available from: 2021-01-31 Created: 2021-01-31 Last updated: 2022-06-13Bibliographically approved
Lövenmark, A., Stier, J. & Blomberg, H. (2022). Diskurser om pandemin och vaccinering i svensk nyhetsmedia. Socialmedicinsk Tidskrift, 2, 178-190
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Diskurser om pandemin och vaccinering i svensk nyhetsmedia
2022 (Swedish)In: Socialmedicinsk Tidskrift, ISSN 0037-833X, E-ISSN 2000-4192, Vol. 2, p. 178-190Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [sv]

I denna studie identifieras vilka diskurser som dominerat talutrymmet i svensk nyhetsmedia när det gäller pandemin och vaccinering. Data från Mediaarkivet analyserades utifrån hur språket används för att forma diskurser och samhällets medborgare. Nyhetsmedia använder retoriska resurser som väcker känslor; rädsla, solidaritet och ansvar. De identifierande diskurserna; Kriget mot världens osynliga fiende, I solidaritetens namn, I förnuftets kölvatten och Mot en ny värld? innehåller även metaforer som retoriska resurser med en dominans av krigsmetaforer. De medborgare som hävdar att de kan tänka och agera förnuftigt på egen hand, utan att styras av rädsla och rådande diskurser, framställs som obildade och egoistiska och får sällan talutrymme inom traditionell nyhetsmedia. De oönskade rösterna tystas och förpassas till alternativa kanaler och plattformar med allvarliga konsekvenser för åsiktsfrihet och det demokratiska samtalet i samhället.

National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-60619 (URN)
Available from: 2022-11-16 Created: 2022-11-16 Last updated: 2025-02-20Bibliographically approved
Östlund, G., Blomberg, H., Rautell Lindstedt, P. & Curuklu, B. (2021). DIG Child ett digitalt metodverktyg för ökad delaktighet.. In: : . Paper presented at Barnrättsdagarna, Stiftelsen Allmänna Barnhuset, 14-15 september, Digital nationell konferens.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>DIG Child ett digitalt metodverktyg för ökad delaktighet.
2021 (Swedish)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Other academic)
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-56187 (URN)
Conference
Barnrättsdagarna, Stiftelsen Allmänna Barnhuset, 14-15 september, Digital nationell konferens
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2018-01319
Available from: 2021-10-13 Created: 2021-10-13 Last updated: 2021-12-14Bibliographically approved
Lassinantti, K., Blomberg, H. & Östlund, G. (2021). Discursive Strategies in Adolescent Girl’s and Women’s Constructions of Mental Health and Ill-Health. In: IV ISA Forum of Sociology: Book of Abstracts. Paper presented at IV ISA Forum of Sociology, Online, 23-27 February, 2021 (pp. 323-324).
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Discursive Strategies in Adolescent Girl’s and Women’s Constructions of Mental Health and Ill-Health
2021 (English)In: IV ISA Forum of Sociology: Book of Abstracts, 2021, p. 323-324Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Series
Book of Abstracts accepted for presentation at the IV ISA Forum of Sociology, ISSN 2522-7300
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-56182 (URN)
Conference
IV ISA Forum of Sociology, Online, 23-27 February, 2021
Available from: 2021-10-13 Created: 2021-10-13 Last updated: 2022-11-09Bibliographically approved
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-6227-4408

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