Loneliness in adolescents is related to common mental health issues, and as a major global concern it is important to investigate loneliness from their own perspectives. The aim of this study was to explore how adolescents experience and describe negative and positive sides of loneliness. Data was collected through interviews with fifteen young Swedish-speaking Finns. Two main themes and seven subthemes were found. Negative experiences of involuntary loneliness were stressful and paralyzing giving rise to physical symptoms, emptiness, anxiety, fear and invisibility. Other negative experiences resulting from involuntary loneliness were shame, self-blame and self-contempt, as well as meaninglessness, hopelessness and exclusion. Positive experiences from self-chosen solitude were freedom, calmness and recovery, creativity and meaningfulness as well as reflection, recharging and personal growth.
Mental health problems among adolescents and young adults are increasing worldwide together with loneliness, which is considered a global public health problem. The aim of this study was to explore loneliness through adolescents´ and young adults´ own descriptions and experiences. The research questions were: (1) How do adolescents and young adults describe and experience loneliness?, (2) What types of loneliness do adolescents and young adults describe? Data were collected through interviews with fifteen Swedish-speaking Finns aged 17-30. Content analysis was used for data analysis. Loneliness was linked to earlier negative experiences, mental illness or physical disorders, self-centred society, social norms and social media. Three different types of loneliness were identified: social loneliness, emotional loneliness and existential loneliness. It is important that adults and professionals are able to identify, interpret and understand signs that adolescents and young adults are experiencing negative feelings, which may indicate underlying loneliness.
This article focuses on the influence of a programme with the purpose of increasing young people’s motivation to engage in professions with labour shortages in the Swedish public sector. The data collection methods used were qualitative and quantitative. The study shows that employment quality (skills, learning opportunities and social interaction) is essential to young people in relation to labour market interventions targeted at professions with labour shortages in the public sector. There appears to be heterogeneity in how young people value different factors. In addition, the motivational profile of young people seems to be an evolving process, but also in what way participation in a programme with focus on professions with labour shortages may contribute to such changes. The results indicate that, when planning a programme aimed at young people, individual differences should be taken into account in order to motivate them to work in professions with labour shortages.
In Sweden as in most other OECD countries, school-to-work transitions have become extended and uncertain endeavours. School dropout and youth unemployment rates are comparatively high, and the so-called yo–yo transitions are common. Although traditionally characterised as a prominent example of a social democratic welfare regime, Sweden has recently incorporated numerous neo-liberal ideas into its educational and youth policies. The responsibility for managing and implementing these policies has been extensively devolved to the country’s 290 municipalities. Moreover, young people are increasingly expected to take exclusive responsibility for forging their own careers, and to be self-governing, enterprising and proactive, both within the educational quasi-market and beyond. The aim of this article was to critically analyse current Swedish national school-to-work transition policies as well as the ways in which local strategies and measures are implemented and developed within individual municipalities given the relatively broad latitude available to them, and to provide some tentative explanations for Sweden’s problems with school dropout rates and youth unemployment.
This study explores what South African township youth presented as significant elements in their identity shaping. The youth participants were invited to take photographs and engage in reflective writing to explain the significance of what they had photographed. The theoretical framework is post modern and post apartheid views of identity, where language is the medium for expressing experiences, feelings and identity. We used a methodological framework of participatory research, in which participants engage in the process of research actively by reflecting on the lives of their own or their communities. Thirteen previously disadvantaged Grade 11 students took photos every day for a week. After which the students selected their most significant photos to write their narratives. This paper focuses on the texts that the students wrote to explain their photographs. The students’ photos and texts showed that democracy, family, present context and culture, have most influence on young people's lives.
Sport participation for youth with immigrant background is often argued to play an important role for migrant youth integration into their new host society. Although few well sampled longitudinal studies has been conducted. The aim of this study was to study the impact that sport participation has on two integration-related outcomes (problem behaviours and native friends) by using the Swedish version of the longitudinal CILS4EU study. The multi-group latent growth curve models showed that although youth active or starting in sport independent of immigrant background did less problem behaviours and had more native friends than their peers with the same immigrant background that was not engaged in sport. However, the trajectories were very similar and often very close to zero, which makes it difficult to claim that sport participation has any significant impact on integration in the Swedish society.
This study aimed to explore adolescent boys' views of masculinity and emotion management and their potential effects on well-being. Interviews with 33 adolescent boys aged 16–17 years in Sweden were analysed using grounded theory. We found two main categories of masculine conceptions in adolescent boys: gender-normative masculinity with emphasis on group-based values, and non-gender-normative masculinity based on personal values. Gender-normative masculinity comprised two seemingly opposite emotional masculinity orientations, one towards toughness and the other towards sensitivity, both of which were highly influenced by contextual and situational group norms and demands, despite their expressions contrasting each other. Non-gender-normative masculinity included an orientation towards sincerity emphasising the personal values of the boys; emotions were expressed more independently of peer group norms. Our findings suggest that different masculinities and the expression of emotions are strongly intertwined and that managing emotions is vital for well-being.