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Over-indebtedness has become an increasingly common issue in Europe and a growing concern for social work. In Sweden, budget and debt counsellors are the main actors guiding over-indebted individuals towards financial well-being. This study analyses how budget and debt counsellors rhetorically make sense of and justify their service provision. The research data consist of interviews with thirty-nine counsellors, supported by vignettes. The analysis shows that counsellors make sense of their service by constructing two guiding principles: to promote financial agency, centred on upholding the client’s autonomy and self-determination in solving the debt problems, respectively, to promote financial change, centred on providing the advice, guidance and practical support required to alleviate the client’s debt problems. These two guiding principles construct the client’s capability and responsibility to deal with their debt burden differently and motivate the counsellors to take different courses of action in relation to the client. Counsellors’ sense-making talk can thus be said to both reproduce and challenge predominant policy discourses emphasising citizens’ personal responsibility for creating welfare. The findings are discussed in relation to their implications for social work policy and practice.

In the current economic environment, social workers are increasingly being required to support households that suffer from severe debt burdens. However, previous research has questioned if social workers are sufficiently prepared to meet this emerging form of financial exclusion, especially from a gender perspective. Thus, there is a risk that interventions for indebted households will overlook gender-specific, inequality-generating patterns in the acquisition and management of debts. With this in mind, the aim of this article is to provide an overview of the existing literature related to gender and household debt, in order to enable a development towards gender-aware social work interventions that equally support women and men in creating financially stable lives. The results show that gender dynamics affect how households acquire and manage their debt. These dynamics result in different forms and levels of debt for women and men, unequally divided spheres of responsibility for managing the acquired debt burden and differences in their willingness to seek debt advice. Unequal power relations between men and women and gender-stereotypic expectations are found to be key factors for explaining these results. The results are discussed in relation to practical implications for social policy and social work practice.

In parallel with increasing levels of household over-indebtedness, dominant discourses position debt problems mainly as resulting from financial mismanagement and character failings on the individual level. The ‘fiscal identity’ of over-indebted is thereby constructed in opposition to current ideals of financial competence and rationality. This article seeks to investigate how these dominant discourses interact with notions of gender in the debt-managing institution of Swedish budget and debt counselling. The aim was to examine the fiscal identities that are constructed in budget and debt counsellor’s talk and written documentation about male and female clients, and the implications these constructions may have for the help-giving technologies implemented. The empirical material consists of 11 focus group interviews with budget and debt counsellors and analysis of documentation. The results show that gendered fiscal identities are constructed, with masculinity being associated with financial competence, autonomy and less need of emotional support and femininity with a lack of financial competence and a need for comprehensive counselling contacts. These gendered constructions implicitly motivate different help-giving technologies for women and men, although the counsellors claim that gender does not influence the help they provide. Age and ethnicity are found to affect these gendered constructions to varying degrees. The results are discussed in relation to the ideals that are (re)produced through the construction of these gendered fiscal identities and help-giving technologies and how debt-managing welfare institutions contribute to the making of the indebted woman and man.

This is a book about social workers and social work. It tells the story of the journey into and through social work of people from around the world living and working in social work today. We hear what has brought them into social work and what has kept them in it since. Their lively accounts demonstrate that commitment and passion remain at the heart of social work today. This new edition of Becoming a Social Worker is made up of entirely new stories. It describes what it is like to be a social worker in a range of different practice settings in different countries. While many of the narratives are from practitioners and educators who either grew up in, or came as adults to, the UK, half of the narratives explores the experiences of social workers and educators working in different parts of the world in countries as diverse as Australia and New Zealand, India and Bangladesh, Ireland, Sweden and Eastern Europe, Nigeria, the USA and Canada. The book ends with a commentary, which argues that social work is truly a global profession.Some of the contributors will be recognised as those who have played a key part in shaping social work over the years and they provide valuable insights into how the profession has developed over time. Other contributors, less well known but no less interesting, give a vivid account of the challenges that social work education and practice face, and the shared values that underpin social work wherever it is located. Social work is a demanding and difficult job that goes largely unseen within society. We only ever hear about social work and social workers when something goes wrong and a vulnerable adult or child is hurt. Becoming a Social Worker sets out to change that - to make social work visible, so that those considering a career in the caring professions across the world can make an informed choice about whether social work is the career for them.

Background and purpose

Research on women's and men's debt problems is a neglected area. The research available shows that women and men's gender typical behaviours and gender-related dynamics in close relationships that reflect societal power structures (for instance women’s subordination under men) are relevant to understand what creates and is the cause of economic inequality in households. The limited research that exists suggests, for instance, that women’s debts to a greater extent derives from consumption or student loans, while men's indebtedness to a greater extent is caused by misguided ventures in their own businesses and car purchases. In close relationships, women's indebtedness also more often seems to be rooted in solidarity actions, such as entering as a creditor of loans that their men have taken, to get the opportunity to develop their own business. In this sense, men’s debts are more often directly related to their own business and personal projects.

The aim of the current project is to deepen the understanding of gender differences in women’s and men’s descriptions of ways of getting into debt problems.

Methods

The study is qualitative and has a gender comparative design. A strategic sample (concerning gender, age and family constellation) is made of men’s and women’s “personal letter” that are appended to debt relief applications sent to the Swedish Enforcement Authority's (Swedish: Kronofogden). Approximately 50.000 debt reconstruction applications that includes a personal letter are received by the Authority every year. Around 10% of these letters from 2015 are analyzed using a combinations of content and narrative analysis. This is done by searching for the applicants’ descriptions of circumstances that has led into their debt problems as well as their explanations to the causes for the problems

Results

Preliminary results confirm that women and men's gender typical behaviors and gender-related dynamics in their close relationships can be used as explanations for the debt problems that are at hand.

Conclusions and implications

Further research is needed on how indebted identities are formed in interaction with others. Such research should examine how women and men are categorized and treated by professional helpers (social workers and other professionals) as well as how the indebted on the basis of this form their self-image and ultimately shapes their actions. On the basis of the results it is recommended that professional helpers pay closer attention to and try to prevent that men's gender typical behaviors and power relations between women and men in close relationships causes debt problems. 

The aim of the present study is to deepen the understanding of over-indebted persons' ways of describing the causes of their debts and the part they and others played in the emergence of the problematic situation, in their written communications with public authorities with influence over the debt-reconstruction process. The method was a qualitative multiple-case-study design with a purposive, cross-sectional sample consisting of personal letters attached to debt reconstruction applications submitted to the Swedish Enforcement Agency. The results reveal three main ways that applicants present their cases: Attributing responsibility to oneself, Avoiding the question of responsibility, and Attributing responsibility to others. The authors suggest that the results can be used in social work to help over-indebted people to understand and present their problems in a way that restores their vulnerable identity and allows them to counteract interpretations of them as having acted irresponsibly regarding their finances.

Summary

To become, to be and to have been: about the  Jehovah’s Witnesses

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, in the following text referred to as the Jehovah’s Witnesses or “the organisation”, is a worldwide Christian organisation with about 6.7 million members. The organisation has many times, without any success so far, proclaimed Armageddon when they expect Jehovah to return to Earth. They interpret the Bible in their own, often very literal way, and require their members to live according to these interpretations. Among the consequences of this, members are forbidden to vote, to do military service or to receive blood transfusions. Apart from attending the three weekly meetings, members are expected to be active in missionary work, known as “publishing”. If a member fails to do a certain number of hours’ publishing, he or she risks being deprived of active membership status

Sweden in general is considered to be a society where the population is not very religious. The formerly state-governed Lutheran church has lost its influence and the vast majority of ordinary Swedes do not visit church on other occasions than weddings, funerals or christenings. Expressing one’s own religious values has become somewhat of a private matter where publicity is seldom appreciated, which is contrary to the practice of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. This is one of the reasons why the Jehovah’s Witnesses are commonly perceived by average Swedes as a “suspicious” religious organisation.

The aim and methods of the study

This dissertation seeks to describe and investigate the entering and leaving of a highly structured and hierarchical religious community, exemplified in this case by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. What are the thoughts and aspirations of someone who is considering becoming a Jehovah’s Witness? What are the priorities and what experiences seem important when a person is going through such a process? And when this person has finally reached his or her goal of becoming a member, is it the same motivation that makes him or her stay in the organisation for longer periods of time, possibly for the rest of their lives, or does it change during the process of entering, or does this motivation change its character during the transition from entering to being a regular member?

Why do some of the members change their attitude to the Jehovah’s Witnesses from rejoicing to bitterness? And how does this process of exit manifest itself? In what way is it different from the process of entry?

The respondents in this study were chosen from both active members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Sweden and those who have left the organisation for personal reasons. Repeated interviews with ten active members of the organisation have been conducted in the course of the study and compared to equal numbers of former members. The interviews have been semi-structured to deal with questions of how a person has come into contact with the organisation; how they retrospectively experienced the process of entry; the reasons for becoming a member. Questions have also been asked about life in the organisation. The group of “exiters” have also been asked about the experience of leaving, why they wanted to leave, and how this process was started and carried out.

In addition to this I have analysed a four-year diary describing the time inside and the process of leaving the organisation. This has given me an extra psychological insight into the inner experience of someone who has gone through the whole process.

The analysis has been done by categorising the content of the transcribed interviews. An attempt to outline a model of an entry and exit process has been made, based on ideas and interpretations presented in the interviews. The analysis of the diary has involved thorough reading, resulting in a division of it into four different parts, where each part has been given a certain key-word, signifying the author’s emotional state when writing it. A great deal of the information about the Jehovah’s Witnesses has been collected through discussion boards on the Internet, informal talks with members and ex-members, interviews with representatives of the organisations during visits to its different offices (Bethels), such as St. Petersburg, Russia, and Brooklyn, New York, USA.

The context

Each organisation evolves in its own context with its own norms, roles and stories that would not survive outside it. With this as a starting point, there is a chapter dedicated to the description of the organisation’s history, structure and activities. It has been stated that the organisation’s treatment of its critical members and the strategies for recruiting new members have evolved over the years of its history. At the beginning there was an openness allowing members to be critical. As the structure of the organisation has become more rigid and formalised, the treatment of internal critics has become much less tolerated and exclusion has become a frequent option.

As a rule many new members have been attracted to the organisation when (1) the day of Armageddon has been pronounced to be approaching; (2) the members of the organisation have been persecuted or threatened with persecution; and (3) the organisation has discovered a “new market”.

The processes for entering and exiting

How the entering processes manifest themselves depends on whether the person has been brought up in the organisation or not. A person converting as an adult has to pass six phases before being considered a Jehovah’s Witness by the organisation. These are:

 Contact with the Jehovah’s Witnesses,

• Studying the bible with members of the organisation,
• Questioning,
• Accepting,
• Being active as publisher (spreading the belief),
• Being baptised.

 For a person brought up in the organisation, the process to full membership is much shorter:

• Upbringing in the organisation,
• Taking a stand on the belief,
• Being baptised.

The exit process contains of seven phases:

• Different levels of doubts,
• Testing of doubts,
• Turning points,
• Different kinds of decisions,
• Different steps in executing the decisions,
• Floating, a period of emotional and cognitive consideration of membership and its experiences,
• Realtive neutrality.

The process in and the process out are both slow and are accompanied with anguish and doubts. When a person is going through the process in or out of the organisation he or she experiences criticism. This is when people around the adept question the decision to continue in the process. The result of the criticism depends on where in the process the person is. If he or she is at the beginning of the process, the criticism will probably make the person insecure and the process will slow down or stop. If the criticism is pronounced in a later phase, the process will probably speed up.

The norms of the organisation affect the behaviour of the members. There are techniques for inclusion that both bind members to the organisation and shield them off from the surrounding society. Examples of techniques for inclusion are the “work situation” and “closed doors”. The work situation signifies that members who do as the organisation recommends – doing simple work – often end up in the same branch of industry as many other Jehovah’s Witnesses. This often means that the person has other witnesses as workmates. If the person is unemployed or moves to another town it is easy to find a new job through connections in the organisation.

Doubts and exclusions can lead to problems since they entail a risk of losing one’s job. This can also result in problems getting a new job. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not supposed to talk to excluded members, which of course mean difficulties working together. “Closed doors” means that members who do as the organisation recommends – not pursuing higher education, not engaging in civil society, working with a manual or in other way simple job, putting much time into the organisation – will, after a long life in the organisation, have problems starting a new life outside the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The language used in the organisation shows the community among the members, thus the language is one of the most important symbols. A special way of thinking is created through the language. It binds members to the organisation and sometimes it can work as a way to get back into the normative world of the organisation.

Randall Collins’s (1990, 2004) thoughts about “emotional energy” have enabled an understanding of the solidarity and unity in the organisation. This also gives an understanding of the way the members treat doubting and critical members. The members who want to exit have to open up the binding/screening off. A possible way to do that is through language, to become aware of the effect the language might have. Another way is to search for emotional energy in another situation.

During the exit process, shame might be of some importance. When members become aware of the shame they feel, because they perceive they are “acting a belief”, the exit process might accelerate.

It is an everyday experience to realize that things do not turn out the as expected. But what if you realize that everything you have so far experienced as reality is illusion? This article is about former members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who have had doubts about what they previously believed to be the Truth. The article also treats the exit process, from being a Jehovah’s Witness to becoming an ex-Jehovah’s Witness. The data consists of twenty qualitative interviews with ten Jehovah’s Witnesses and twenty qualitative interviews with ten former Jehovah’s Witnesses. The data also include a diary written during four years preceding an exit from the organization. The analysis was made through thematic concentration. Ontologically the analysis and the article are based on a constructionist view though it is mainly empirical with no further theoretical assessment. However, to be able to understand the results a contextual frame is sketched with two factors affecting members who make an exit. First there are tying factors that bind the person closer to the organization; these are closeness and friendship and confirmation. A secluding factor is something that secludes the member from the outside society; these factors are the work situation and »closed doors«. With high values on these factors the exit process will be more arduous. The results are presented through a process model in which different phases or steps in the exit process are described. The following steps in the process are: (1) different levels of doubts; (2) trying out doubts; (3) turning points; (4) different decisions; (5) different steps in execution; (6) floating; (7) relative neutrality. The process is defined as an altogether ambivalent and emotionally tough experience, but other parts of life may be affected as well, such as employment, social life, family life and career.

Vad är socialt arbete? Ja, den här boken ska göra det lite svårare för dig att ge ett svar på den frågan! Åtminstone ett enkelt svar. För socialt arbete är så mycket och så varierande. Att vara socialarbetare är att ha en arbetsuppgift och ett ansvar som kan vara livsavgörande för den människa man samarbetar med. Just därför är det sociala arbetet ett så fascinerande professionsfält! Med boken följer eLabbet, som är ett webbaserat studiestöd. eLabbet för Förstå socialt arbete innehåller ca 115 instuderingsfrågor och ca 10 relevanta praktikfall. Här kan man träna på viktiga ord, begrepp och fakta och få omedelbar feedback. Här kan man också tillämpa sina kunskaper på verklighetsorienterade praktikfall. eLabbet innehåller dessutom interaktiva kunskapstester med slumpade testfrågor där man kan repetera sina kunskaper samt få läs- och länktips.  Aktiveringskod följer med boken. För mer information om eLabbet samt inloggning, gå till www.liber.se/elabbet.Läs mer Det sociala arbetet lämnar inte den professionella aktören, socialarbetaren oberörd. Vi förändras och utvecklas med arbetet, och vi genomgår professionella kriser. Att vara socialarbetare innebär en utmaning och det vi sätter på spel är den egna personen och den egna självuppfattningen. Det sociala arbetet spänner över stora kunskapsområden och en mängd arbetsuppgifter, som kan vara av mycket olika karaktär. Vi befinner oss i ett spänningsfält mellan de stora sociala perspektiven på samhället och det psykologiska djupseendet beträffande den enskilda människan. Förstå socialt arbete är en grundbok om socialt arbete, som det finns skäl att återvända till under hela utbildningstiden. Den teoretiska grundtonen gör boken intressant även för praktiskt verksamma socialarbetare. Om författarna Bengt Börjeson är professor i socialt arbete vid Ersta Sköndal högskola. Under sin mångåriga karriär har han även varit professor i socialt arbete vid universiteten i Umeå och Stockholm, samt rektor för Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm. Han har också under många år arbetat vid och varit chef för Barnbyn Skå. eLabbet är utvecklat av Pernilla Liedgren Dobronravoff, lektor i socialt arbete vid Ersta Sköndal högskola.

Teachers in Swedish schools must balance the values imposed by law while simultaneously attempting to respect freedom of religion for their pupils. This study aimed to empirically investigate how teachers handle pupils who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, a minority religion. Eleven, adult ex-members were asked to reflect on their experiences during school years (13–16 years) in addition to interviews with two teachers, one school psychologist and one school counsellor. The study found that teachers often do not know how to handle situations with children belonging to minority religions. The article concludes by discussing practical implications of the study.

Universities in the Global North teach social work in the Global South from time to time. This article aims to describe and discuss such projects from a pedagogical aspect, with a focus on teaching styles. Nine interviews were conducted with Swedish teachers who had experience of teaching in Iraqi Kurdistan. The article sketches their strategies they developed during their period of teaching social work abroad. The teachers had different ways of handling the teaching situation and the styles were divided into three major types. These styles are referred to here as Co-traveller, Therapeutic and Socratic.

Social work is often presented with new concepts and methods that are taken to heart without much consideration. This study discusses one such new concept – research-minded practitioners – with the aim of investigating its possibilities. This has been done through a critical reading of three texts where the founders describe its building blocks and definition. It is concluded that it may be a viable concept, but it is still in its early days and more studies are needed. The connection between research-minded practitioners and the implied positive link to evidence-based practice is characterized as lacking a foundation. Suggestions are offered for further developing the concept.

Denna rapport har som syfte att göra en översyn av magisterprogramet i evidensbaserat socialt arbetes första år. Intervjuer har genomförts med studenter, lärare samt representanter för arbetslivet (kommuner). I rapporten presenteras följande förlag; 1) Att avsluta fri-fart, fri-start upplägget och istället införa fast fart (25% alt. 50%)  takt för studierna. Kurserna kan fortfarande bestå av inspelade föreläsningar och ha en stor flexibilitet, inom terminsgränserna. 2) Att begränsa examinationerna till fem. 3) Att ha kvar distans/nätundervisningen och att uppmuntra kursansvariga att lägga in diskussionstrådar, chat, connectmöten och bjuda in studenter som bor nära studieorten att närvara vid streamade föreläsningar. 4) Att ge möjligheter till ett program. Att erbjuda magisterkurserna som fristående kurser som sedan vägs samman i en magisterexamen. 5) Att inrätta ett programråd där återkommande diskussioner förs kring socialarbetarnas utbildning, policyns implementering och vidarutveckling.

This study investigated how young teenagers, as members of a strong religious organization, dealt with the school situation and the encounter with mainstream culture taking place at school during the final years in Swedish primary school (age 13-15 years). The purpose was to explore possible strategies that members of a minority group, in this case the Jehovah’s Witnesses, developed in order to deal with a value system differing from that of the group. We interviewed eleven former members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses about their final years in compulsory Swedish communal school. The ages of the interviewees ranged between 24 and 46 years, and the interviewed group comprised six men and five women. Nine of the eleven interviewees had grown up in the countryside or in villages. All but two were ethnic Swedes. The time that had passed since leaving the movement ranged from quite recently to 20 years. The results revealed three strategies; Standing up for Your Beliefs, Escaping, and Living in Two Worlds. The first two strategies are based on a One-World View, and the third strategy, Living in Two Worlds, implies a Two-World View, accepting to a certain extent both the Jehovah’s Witnesses outlook as well as that of ordinary society. The strategy Standing up for Your Beliefs can be described as straightforward, outspoken, and bold; the youngsters did not show any doubts about their belief. The second subgroup showed an unshakeable faith, but suffered psychological stress since their intentions to live according to their belief led to insecurity in terms of how to behave, and also left them quite isolated. These people reported more absence from school. The youngsters using the strategy Living in Two Worlds appeared to possess the ability to sympathize with both world views, and were more adaptable in different situations.

Is it possible to see future social work in today’s social work students? It is likely that the way these students think about social work will form the future practice. In this study we investigate social work students’ motives and expectations of their future profession. A survey was conducted among first semester students at four different universities in Sweden (n=243). The survey asked questions about the students’ motives, what they thought the main aim of social work is, and how they would like to be seen as social workers. The results show among other things that social work students consider the main aim of social work is to improve people’s lives, advocate on people’s behalf, and protect vulnerable people. The most frequently stated motives for becoming involved in social work were to help vulnerable people, and an interest in social issues, and the least important were religious or political reasons. The study has not being able to identify any future changes in social work. This could be interpreted as showing that social work has basic values that are constant over time and cultures.

Decision support systems are known to be helpful for professionals in many medical professions. In social work, decision support systems have had modest use, accompanied by strong criticism from the profession but often by praise from political management. In this study the aim of the authors was to collect and report on the published evidence on decision support systems in social work. The conclusion of the authors is that a decision support system gives support to social workers in conducting a thorough investigation, but at the same time gives them the freedom to make autonomous decisions that might be the most helpful for and used by social workers. Their results also indicate that decision support systems focusing on atypical rather than typical cases are perceived as the most useful among experienced staff.

The article investigates how over-indebted persons present their case in personal letters attached to debt-reconstruction applications and how their narratives can be argued to contain features that help counteract negative expectations about their identity. The results reveal three types of narratives. These are: negotiating, in which the applicant communicates personal agency in relation to all areas of life, and the promise to start a new life and continue on the path of improvement is invoked as the main reason for being deserving of help; reimbursement-claiming, in which personal agency is communicated in relation to all aspects except for the applicant’s personal economy, and earlier achievements are invoked as the main reason for being deserving of help; and confessing, in which personal agency is communicated as located outside the applicant’s control, and a lack of possibilities to manage one’s own personal economy is invoked as the main reason for being deserving of help. The results also show that, although all three narrative categories can be considered counter-stories, confessing can be argued to have the greatest potential to counteract negative expectations and thereby help to repair the applicant’s identity.

The starting point of this article is an interest in understanding whathappens when the concept of evidence-based practice (EBP) travelbetween countries. Understanding knowledge as somethingconstructed between actors who shape and trade ideas andexperiences, the aim is to study how EBP has been received,interpreted and practised in Swedish social work in comparison tosome of the other Nordic welfare states. This is done through ascoping study literature review of research on evidence-based practice(EBP) in Swedish social work within the Swedish welfare system. Thereview shows that two research units (CUS and IMS) at the publicauthority National Board of Health and Welfare have had significantinfluence on the travelling of EBP to Sweden. Further, the reviewshows that a guideline-model version of EBP has been given priority inthe diffusion process. The results also show that the interest in EBPamong managers has increased over the past few years, and that theirattitude toward the concept is generally positive. At the same timeSwedish social workers rarely make use of research in their work,seldom use evidence-based methods, and seems to be unsure of themeaning of the concept.

Denna rapport presenterar en översikt av forskning om evidensbaserad praktik (EBP) i svenskt socialt arbete inom den kommunala socialtjänsten och andra verksamheter inom den svenska socialvården. Syftet är att beskriva forskningsläget om EBP i socialt arbete samt ge förslag till fortsatt forskning på området. I rapporten redovisas forskning om stöd, attityder och förhållningssätt till det evidensbaserade arbetet med fokus på organisation, chefer och första linjens socialarbetare. Resultaten visar att genomförandet av EBP i socialt arbete till stora delar styrts centralt av Socialstyrelsen. Den EBP-version som på detta sätt prioriterats och spridits skulle kunna kallas en guideline-modell. Forskning visar också att svenska socialarbetares anpassning till ett EBP-koncept enligt guideline-modell är relativt svagt. Trots det är socialarbetare liksom sina chefer överlag allmänt positiva till EBP, men det finns också en relativt stark oro för att den version av EBP som sprids av Socialstyrelsen är för rigorös för att passa praktiskt socialt arbete. Mot bakgrund av det fokus som forskningen haft och de kunskapsluckor som finns om socialarbetares förhållande till en reflekterande praktiker-modell avslutas rapporten med att ge ett förslag på framtida möjliga forskningsfrågor utifrån detta perspektiv

The aim of this scoping study review was to investigate interventions,undertaken as part of regular work, aiming to reduce the risk of over-indebtednessamong individuals and families. Research questions includeddescribing interventions, target groups and the results of evaluations, aswell as investigating the support that the methods used for evaluating theresults of the interventions give for determining whether they representgood practice. Eleven articles were found presenting interventions withvarying target groups, intensity and duration. The methods used had thefollowing areas of focus: economic and financial knowledge acquisition,economic skills acquisition, and emotional and psychological alleviationand enhancement in relation to economy. The results show that because ofshortcomings in the designs and methods used in the evaluations of outcomesof the interventions, the results obtained cannot be considered sufficientlyrobust to be used to systematize and develop work with indebtedindividuals and families.

Over-indebtedness has increased in Sweden and other European countries during the past 30 years. It involves great suffering for afflicted individuals and high costs for society, as well as inflicting personal stigma because of their inability to fulfill their moral obligation to pay debts. The aim of the study is to analyse personal letters attached to applications for debt reconstruction as examples of counterstories, paying special attention to the potential for these narratives to provide narrative repair for the applicants, as well as to formulate resistance to master narratives regarding over-indebtedness. The data for the study consists of personal letters accompanying applications for debt reconstruction. Qualitative analyses are made of the three different styles of argumentation that over-indebted persons use in applications for debt reconstruction, negotiation, reimbursement-claiming and confession, using the theoretical framework of counterstories. The results show that negotiation and reimbursement-claiming both have the potential for narrative repair and resistance to the master narrative, while confession does not.

Social work is a field in which budget and debt counselling are offered, and instruments have been developed to map this type of problem. The aim of this paper is to present a scoping review of validated instruments in budget and debt counselling with over-indebted people. The study's questions are: How do the instruments studied address problems related to over-indebtedness? What assumptions about the causes and remedies of over-indebtedness do the instruments for budget and debt counselling rest on? How can the ways in which these instruments address over-indebtedness be understood as micro-managing this social problem? How may the use of these instruments affect the possibility of budget and debt counsellors taking structural conditions and barriers into account? The study results show that most of the instruments are designed to map resources or problems related to the household economy. Using these instruments, social workers can be seen as part of the governance of citizens through reformatory technology and micro-management of subjects in a financialized society. On the one hand, they can be used to support clients. On the other hand, the instruments can also shift the focus away from structural conditions in society and the consequences of economic inequality. Budget- och skuldr & aring;dgivning & auml;r ett omr & aring;de inom socialt arbete som ska erbjuda st & ouml;d och hj & auml;lp till & ouml;verskuldsatta. Instrument har utvecklats f & ouml;r att anv & auml;ndas av budget- och skuldr & aring;dgivare i kartl & auml;ggningen av denna typ av problem. Syftet med denna artikel & auml;r att presentera en kartl & auml;ggningsstudie (scoping review) av validerade instrument f & ouml;r bruk inom budget- och skuldr & aring;dgivning. Studiens fr & aring;gest & auml;llningar & auml;r: Hur adresserar de studerade instrumenten problem relaterade till & ouml;verskulds & auml;ttning? Vilka implicita antaganden om orsaker till problem som r & ouml;r & ouml;verskulds & auml;ttning och l & ouml;sningar p & aring; dessa problem bygger utformningen av instrumenten p & aring;? Hur kan s & auml;ttet som dessa instrument hanterar & ouml;verskulds & auml;ttning f & ouml;rst & aring;s som mikrostyrning av sociala problem? Och vilka effekter kan bruket av denna typ av instrument f & aring; f & ouml;r budget- och skuldr & aring;dgivares m & ouml;jlighet att beakta strukturella f & ouml;rh & aring;llanden och hinder? Studiens resultat visar att de flesta instrumenten & auml;r utformade f & ouml;r att kartl & auml;gga resurser eller problem relaterade till hush & aring;llsekonomin. Genom att anv & auml;nda dessa instrument kan socialarbetare ses som en del av styrningen av medborgare genom reformatorisk teknik och mikrostyrning i ett finansialiserat samh & auml;lle. & Aring; ena sidan kan de anv & auml;ndas f & ouml;r att st & ouml;dja klienter. & Aring; andra sidan kan instrumenten ocks & aring; flytta fokus bort fr & aring;n samh & auml;lleliga strukturella f & ouml;rh & aring;llanden och konsekvenserna av ekonomisk oj & auml;mlikhet.

While questions about adaptation and fidelity are of great concern in manyimplementation projects, less attention has been paid to reasons for adaptations thatremain when evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are used in clinical and communitysettings. This study aims to explore reasons for adaptations that can arise whenusing parenting programs in a community setting. Seventeen individual interviewswith providers were conducted and analyzed thematically, resulting in 11 reasonsfor adaptations organized into four separate areas: characteristics of group leaders(supplementary skills and knowledge, preferred ways of working), characteristics offamilies (problem complexity, diverse or limited educational experience, non-parentingneeds for support, colliding value systems), group incidents (criticism and challenges,excessive questions or discussions), and didactic challenges (lack of focus orengagement, limitations of the material, language differences). The study shows thatfactors triggering adaptation and fidelity decisions continuously reappear in the provisionof parenting programs in community settings. Knowledge about reasons for adaptationcan be used to inform decision-making during implementation planning, as well as thesustainment of implemented interventions.

Background: Evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are frequently modified in practice. It is recommended that decisions to modify EBIs should be made deliberately to ensure fidelity-consistency, yet the relationship between fidelity-consistency and deliberateness is not well understood. This study aims to explore modifications in a sample of practitioners delivering evidence-based parenting programs (i.e., interventions to strengthen parent–child relationships, reduce harmful interactions, and improve child health and well-being). The study investigated three research questions: (1) What kind of modifications are made during the delivery of parenting programs? (2) To what degree are the identified modifications consistent with the core functions of each program? and (3) Is deliberateness associated with the fidelity-consistency of the identified modifications? Methods: In total, 28 group leaders of five widely disseminated parenting programs in Sweden participated in five focus groups, and two participants from each group also participated in individual interviews (n = 10). A content analysis approach was used where the identification of modifications was directed by the Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications-Enhanced (FRAME) and then assessed for fidelity-consistency and four levels of deliberateness (universal, situational, conditional, and unintentional). Chi-square tests were performed to compare consistent and inconsistent modifications, and logistic regression was performed to explore whether deliberateness predicted consistency. Results: A total of 137 content modifications were identified, covering most of the content modification categories in FRAME. The most common were tailoring/tweaking/refining, adding elements, shortening/condensing, lengthening/extending, and integrating another treatment. Modifications were mostly fidelity-consistent but consistency varied greatly among categories. Furthermore, modifications made unintentionally or situationally were more likely to be fidelity-inconsistent. Conclusions: These results indicate that explicit consideration of modifications and their impact could be essential for sustaining the fidelity-consistent use of EBIs, even as such interventions are continuously modified.

BACKGROUND: Whereas the value of an evidence-based intervention (EBI) is often determined by its effect on clinical outcomes, the value of implementing and using EBIs in practice is broader, reflecting qualities such as appropriateness, equity, costs, and impact. Reconciling these value conflicts involves a complicated decision process that has received very limited scholarly attention. Inspired by studies on decision-making, the objective of this project is to explore how practitioners appraise the values of different outcomes and to test how this appraisal influences their decisions surrounding the so-called fidelity-adaptation dilemma. This dilemma is related to the balance between using an EBI as it was designed (to ensure its effectiveness) and making appropriate adaptations (to ensure alignment with constraints and possibilities in the local context).

METHODS: This project consists of three sub-studies. The participants will be professionals leading evidence-based parental programs in Sweden and, in Sub-study 1, parents and decision-makers. Sub-study 1 will use sequential focus groups and individual interviews to explore parameters that influence fidelity and adaptation decisions-the dilemmas encountered, available options, how outcomes are valued by practitioners as well as other stakeholders, and value trade-offs. Sub-study 2 is a discrete choice experiment that will test how value appraisals influence decision-making using data from Sub-study 1 as input. Sub-study 3 uses a mixed-method design, with findings from the two preceding sub-studies as input in focus group interviews to investigate how practitioners make sense of findings from optimal decision situations (experiment) and constrained, real-world decision situations.

DISCUSSION: The project will offer unique insights into decision-making processes that influence how EBIs are used in practice. Such knowledge is needed for a more granular understanding of how practitioners manage the fidelity-adaptation dilemma and thus, ultimately, how the value of EBI implementation can be optimized. This study contributes to our knowledge of what happens once EBIs are adopted-that is, the gap between the way in which EBIs are intended to be used and the way in which they are used in practice.