Introduction: Although research has shown that evidence-based family interventions in research settings improve the communication and understanding of parental mental illness, there is a lack of knowledge about interventions in an everyday clinical context. Aim: This study explores how families with parental mental illness experience family interventions in a natural clinical context in psychiatric services. Method: Five families with children aged 10–12 were recruited from psychiatric services in southern Sweden and interviewed in a manner inspired by naturalistic inquiry and content analysis. Both family and individual interviews were performed. Results: In striving to lead an ordinary life while coping with the parental mental illness, these families sought the support of the psychiatric services, especially in order to inform their children about the mental illness. Despite different family interventions, the family members felt supported and reported that the number of conflicts in the family had decreased. The parents were appreciative of help with child-rearing questions, and the children experienced a calmer family atmosphere. However, the partner of the person with mental illness experienced being left without support. Implications for practice: Our study shows that psychiatric services, and especially mental health nurses, are in a position to more regularly offer family interventions in supporting the children and the healthy partners.

BACKGROUND: While a large body of research has focused on the challenges experienced by healthcare staff when providing sexual and reproductive health services, little attention has been paid to the ways healthcare providers navigate these challenges. This study examined healthcare providers' accounts of encounters when providing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services to migrants in Southern Sweden. It sought to examine challenges and dilemmas experienced by healthcare providers, strategies used to navigate these challenges and dilemmas, and assumptions underlying participants' accounts.

METHODS: The data collection was conducted between September 2020 and March 2021. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyze thirty-one interviews with healthcare providers working in youth clinics and women healthcare clinics. The analysis was guided by a conceptual framework combining person-centered care approach, Foucault's concepts on power/knowledge, and theories to navigate diversity in healthcare setting: cultural competency and cultural humility.

RESULTS: Three themes were identified in the analysis: 1) Between person centeredness and cultural considerations; 2) Knowledge positions and patient involvement; and 3) beyond the dyadic interaction healthcare provider-patient. Some participants understood person-centered care as individualized care where the influence of culture on the encounter should be de-emphasized, whereas others tended to highlight this influence. Many participants viewed the influence of culture as primarily driven by migrants' cultural backgrounds, and as a source of challenges and dilemmas. Participants' strategies to navigate these perceived challenges and dilemmas included practicing cultural humility and seeking cultural competency. Knowledge positions also emerged as an important aspect of participants' accounts of encounters with migrants. Many participants experienced that migrant patients were lacking knowledge about the body and sexuality. This disadvantaged knowledge position affected migrant involvement in care. Additionally, the study shows how participants placed their experiences in a broader organizational and social context. Participants highlighted several organizational challenges to encountering migrants and discussed dilemmas stemming from the interplay between migrants' structural and individual disadvantages.

CONCLUSIONS: The study findings illuminate the complex links between person-centered care and two important dimensions of the encounters with migrants: culture and knowledge positions. They also shed the light on the organizational and structural challenges surrounding these encounters. These findings suggest that multilevel strategies are needed to improve the quality of encounters when providing SRH services to migrants. These strategies could include ensuring universal access to SRH services to migrants, adjusting the encounter duration when interpretation is needed, and providing necessary resources to healthcare providers to build their structural competency.

Background

Previous research has shown that migrants in Sweden are disadvantaged in terms of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). SRHR policies might play a crucial role in shaping migrants’ SRHR outcomes. The purpose of the study was to critically examine: a) how migrants were represented in the discourses embedded within Swedish SRHR-related policies, and b) how migrants’ SRHR-related issues were framed and addressed within these discourses.

Methods

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to analyze a total of 54 policy documents. Following Jäger’s approach to CDA, discourse strands and entanglements between different discourse strands were examined.

Results

Our findings consisted of three discourse strands: 1) “Emphasizing vulnerability”, 2) “Constructing otherness”, and 3) “Prioritizing the structural level or the individual level?”.

Migrants’ representation in Swedish SRHR-related policies is often associated with the concept of vulnerability, a concept that can hold negative connotations such as reinforcing social control, stigma, and disempowerment. Alongside the discourse of vulnerability, the discourse of otherness appears when framing migrants’ SRHR in relation to what is defined as honor-related violence and oppression. Furthermore, migrant SRHR issues are occasionally conceptualized as structural issues, as suggested by the human rights-based approach embraced by Swedish SRHR-related policies. Relevant structural factors, namely migration laws and regulations, are omitted when addressing, for example, human trafficking and HIV/AIDS.

Conclusions

We conclude that the dominant discourses favor depictions of migrants as vulnerable and as the Other. Moreover, despite the prevailing human rights-based discourse, structural factors are not always considered when framing and addressing migrants’ SRHR issues. This paper calls for a critical analysis of the concept of vulnerability in relation to migrants’ SRHR. It also highlights the importance of avoiding othering and paying attention to the structural factors when addressing migrants’ SRHR.

Consensual non-monogamy (CNM) involves being in a relationship that allows participants multiple concurrent sexual and/or intimate partners. Previous studies exploring attitudes toward different types of extra-dyadic sexual activity (EDSA) has typically distinguished between, on the one hand, polyamory/open relationships/swinging and, on the other, infidelity. The aim of this article is to develop further these discussions by showing how the distinctions between relationship types are drawn and/or blurred in social interactions, and how this requires moral work and negotiations of what ethical polyamory is. The research questions are as follows: 1. How are different CNM relationship types distinguished from each other, as well as intertwined and negotiated in social interactions? 2. How are ideals of consent, honesty, and communication reproduced and renegotiated in CNM relationships? 3. How does moral work become important for responding to negative attitudes toward CNM? The material consists of interviews with 22 persons practicing polyamory, CNM, or relationship anarchy, analyzed using thematic analysis. Results show that CNM relationship types are not clearly distinguishable but rather negotiated in social interactions both within a relationship and with others. Interviewees express that consent, honesty, and communication are central for their relationships, but also that they are negotiated. For example, honesty can be renegotiated by introducing an option of not telling your partner everything. Consent can also be renegotiated with some conditions, such as not actively searching out potential partners. They describe several different types of moral work: negotiating and reformulating others’ moral opinions, reversing moral hierarchies, and taking responsibility to explain and to soothe situations. These results contribute to existing research on attitudes toward CNM practices pointing out the importance of taking social interactions into account in order to explore the full extent of negative attitudes toward people involved in CNM relationships and how they handle these interactions.

Norms concerning family formation are generally based on ideals of coupled love and the two-parent-family, however, family practices frequently go beyond these norms. Families consisting of more than two parents that are co-parenting have only been studied to a small extent. Analysing Swedish newspaper and magazine articles on more-than-two-parent families between 1992 and 2016 we ask: How are more-than-two-parent families displayed in Swedish media stories? Are they portrayed as legitimate families, and if so, how is this legitimacy discursively constructed? What role does recognition play in the media stories and how is it negotiated in the narratives? We use the concepts display (Finch 2007) and recognition/redistribution (Fraser 1998; 2003) in exploring the significance that recognition and legitimacy have for the depiction of families with more than two parents in the media material. The display of more-than-two-parent families in the Swedish media stories analysed is generally characterised by repertoires of modern family life, of love and intimacy and responsible and successful parenting. These repertoires are used to display the families as normal, modern, and legitimate. In addition to the repertoires mentioned, there are repertoires of importance of geographical location, of strategies and of critique of current legislation that further emphasise the legitimacy of the more-than-two-parent families in contrast to an outdated legislation that forces these legitimate families to strategise their intimate relationships. Despite several of the people interviewed being described as polyamorous or gay/lesbian, there are no tendencies in the empirical material to motivate the need for rights based on an essentialised polyamorous identity; rather, the focus is on the fact that it is the practical care relations that need to be protected.

Research on polyamorous parenthood has mainly focused on aspects of interactions with schools and authorities, where polyamorous parents have had to develop strategies of openness and concealment and dealing with stigmatization (Palotta-Chiarolla 2010; Riggs 2010; Sheff 2010). Aspects of sex and morality have primarily been explored in general in relation to non-monogamous practice and not specifically in relation to parenthood (Ritchie 2010; Samuels 2010). Based on interviews with 22 persons in Sweden who in different ways have experience of non-monogamous practice, we explore polyamorous parenthood, focusing on kinship practices, gender and sexual morality. The results of these analyses show that there are recurring themes of promiscuity as a risk that polyamorous parents have to handle. This can take the form of negative interactions with family members and society, practical issues with having sex with several partners or identity issues where good parenthood risks being at odds with non-monogamous practices. The boundaries of good parenthood and promiscuity and the negotiations between them are rarely highlighted in research, but have implications for the moral order of kinship for non-monogamous practice today. 

Polyamory means having a sexual and/or intimate relationship with more than one person at a time. In this study, we use in-depth interviews with 22 persons in Sweden who have experience of polyamorous or non-monogamous relationships to explore how polyamory can include imagining utopian relationships and spaces. Thematic analysis was done which indicated narratives of politically invested attempts to create communal living or societal change that resists capitalist and heteronormative nuclear-family arrangements as well as stories of everyday events that do not explicitly involve political ambitions. The range of utopian dreams and practices of the non-monogamous participants in our study, we argue, are examples of what Munoz calls concrete utopias, filled with joy and laden with disappointment in the face of potentiality and reality.

Denna rapport har som syfte att kartlägga kunskapsområdet sexualitet och samlevnad i svensk lärarutbildning 2016 med särskilt fokus på hiv, STI och SRHR. Resultatet visar att det finns skillnader mellan olika lärosäten, såväl i antal förekomster av indikatorer för kunskapsområdet i olika kurser som på olika utbildningsprogram och stadier. Flera lärosäten har kursplaner som skriver fram ett omfattande innehåll som rör kunskapsområdet sexualitet och samlevnad, medan andra lärosäten presenterar kursplaner med ett betydligt mer begränsat innehåll.

I resultatdiagram synliggörs tydligt två kluster av indikatorer med höga antal förekomster i kursplanerna. Det ena klustret av indikatorer är etik, genus, demokrati, normer, normkritik, det andra värdegrund, barnkonventionen, mänskliga rättigheter, diskriminering och kränkande behandling. Dessa indikatorer förekommer vanligtvis i utbildningsvetenskapliga kurser på alla nivåer samt i olika samhällsorienterande kurser och i akademiska ämneskurser som historia, religionsvetenskap och samhällsvetenskap. Indikatorer som hivprevention, STI, graviditet och preventivmedel saknas helt i de undersökta kursplanerna, i både grundlärarutbildning och ämneslärarutbildning. De förekommer inte heller i biologi, naturkunskap eller i de naturorienterande ämnena för grundlärare i årskurserna 4-6.

Utifrån kartläggningens resultat 2016 föreslås följande:

1. Kunskapsområdet sex och samlevnad behöver ringas in så att åtminstone en slags baskurs innehållande moment som rör stora delar av indikatorerna i denna kartläggning kan konstrueras. Denna bör vara obligatorisk för alla blivande lärare.

2. I enlighet med januariöverenskommelsen om att sex- och samlevnadsundervisning ska bli obligatorisk på alla lärarutbildningsprogram bör UKÄ lägga till ett examensmål, som behandlar kunskapsområdet sexualitet och samlevnad i examensordningen för lärarutbildningar för alla olika stadier inom den svenska skolan. Examensmålen bör omfatta såväl kunskap om och förståelse av sexualitet och forskningsbaserad undervisning, som färdighet och förmåga att undervisa om kunskapsområdet. (Ett examensmål om kunskapsområdet lades till i september 2020.)

3. För att tillgodose god kvalitet och gedigen kompetens hos såväl lärarutbildare som lärarstudenter behövs kontinuerliga och fördjupade utbildningsinsatser.

4. Ett nationellt centrum för kunskapsområdet sexualitet och relationer föreslås. Detta centrum bör vara ämnesövergripande och tvärvetenskapligt samt också fokusera på didaktik. Ett sådant centrum skulle kunna utgöra ett kunskapsstöd för lärarutbildningarna, särskilt under den inledande fasen, när sexualitet och relationer ska bli obligatoriskt och etableras på alla lärarutbildningar. Ett sådant centrum skulle öka möjligheten att alla lärarutbildningarna bygger upp och har tillräckligt hög kompetens inom kunskapsområdet. Ett nationellt centrum skulle dessutom vara ett stöd för verksamma lärare och skulle även kunna erbjuda fortbildning.

5. För att utveckla kunskapsområdet sexualitet och samlevnad behövs ny och aktuell forskning som också kopplas till internationell pågående forskning. Denna forskning kan vara både ämnesinriktad och skolinriktad och av både kvantitativ och kvalitativ art.

6. Den osäkerhet som lärare enligt Skolinspektionens rapport har när det gäller att undervisa om normer och om hbtq-frågor visar att lärarutbildningarna måste ha tydliga inslag som ger kunskaper om hur olika normer kan påverka och begränsa eleverna och även deras lärande.

Avslutningsvis visar resultatet av kartläggningen från 2016 en bild av att kunskapsområdet sexualitet och samlevnad förekommer i alla programutbildningar för blivande lärare. Dessutom visar kartläggningen hur kunskapsområdet uttrycks i kursplaners olika delar genom förekomsten av antalet indikatorer enligt konstruktiv länkning. Tillsammans med de sex förslagen på åtgärder ovan kan därmed kartläggningens syften anses vara uppnådda.

For decades, the media have frequently been instrumental in framing rape cases by linking the deed with the place. This study demonstrates that law courts are not innocent of such social framing; on the contrary, they are significant agents. We argue that courts, by shaping the plot in rape cases, participate in an ongoing cultural production of meaning, although in a more subtle and ambivalent way than the media. In a narrative analysis of three contemporary rape cases in Sweden, we bring together feminist research on place with the concepts of vulnerability and agency. We argue that place is framed as ambivalent in relation to vulnerability and agency, and dependent on the positioning of plaintiff and defendant. In court narratives, geographical places are made relevant, including the locations where the alleged rapes took place. Court narratives of rape include highly ambivalent connotations with place in relation to vulnerability and agency, distinguished by different narratives and outcomes in the various instances. The legal and social implications of our work should include an awareness of the relevance of place in relation to rape.

Objective: Young people are prioritized regarding the promotion and safeguarding of sexual and reproductivehealth and rights – SRHR. In Sweden, the school is seen as an important arena with members of the school healthcare or SHC team as vital actors in this work. This study explored SRHR-related work in SHC teams in Sweden.

Methods: Within an explorative qualitative design, structured interviews were conducted with 33 nurses, counsellors, SHC unit managers and headmasters. Reflexive thematic analysis was applied, and two main themesfound.

Results: SHC team members see SRHR as an urgent topic, but address it only ‘when necessary’, not systematically– and they experience a shortage of guidance and cooperation regarding SRHR-related work. Even in a countrywith agreement on the importance of SRHR for all and on providing holistic comprehensive sex education inschools, young people are left to chance – i.e., to the SRHR competence in the professionals they meet.

Conclusion: SHC team members in Sweden see SRHR as an urgent topic but do not address it systematically.Moreover, they experience a shortage of guidance for their work. To avoid any professional stress of conscienceand for equitable school health care regarding SRHR to be realized, research-informed policy needs to underlinesystematic, comparable and proactive practice.

This study sought to explore how Swedish parents who had commissioned surrogacy abroad experienced the process of parenthood recognition. The study consisted of in-depth interviews with five couples and 10 individuals representing 10 additional couples who had used surrogacy abroad, mainly in India. The construction of motherhood and fatherhood in the Swedish system contradicts how parenthood is defined in the surrogacy process. This study found that the formal recognition of parenthood involved a complex and frustrating process where the presumption of fatherhood and step-child adoption as grounds for parenthood make people feel questioned as parents, negatively affecting parental welfare. Policy makers need to take into account the consequences of an unregulated situation regarding surrogacy, and focus more on the child–parent relationship when regulating surrogacy.

Denna antologi erbjuder forskningsbaserade och didaktiska perspektiv på religion och samhällsförändringar. Antologin är resultatet av ett samarbete mellan forskare från flera olika discipliner vid Malmö universitet och visar på den mångfald av forskningsperspektiv som ryms inom ämnesområdet religionsvetenskap i Sverige idag.

Antologin vänder sig till studenter och verksamma lärare samt en vidare intresserad läsekrets som önskar få tillgång till aktuell forskning och fördjupa sin ämnesteoretiska kunskap. Genom fyra teman belyses aktuella perspektiv på brännande frågor inom samtida religionsvetenskaplig forskning: Religion, kön och sexualitet, Religion, unga och skola, Religion, möten och förändringar samt Religion, politik och samtid.

I en samtid som präglas av ständigt pågående förändring är religion och livsåskådningsfrågor synnerligen aktuella. Mötet mellan historiska traditioner och nutida samhällsutveckling visar hur inte bara religiösa rörelser, utan också människors trosuppfattningar och identiteter, omtolkas och förändras över tid. Undervisningen i religionskunskap i grund- och gymnasieskolan utgår från att kunskap om religion och andra livsåskådningar är central för vår förståelse av en omvärld som i allt större utsträckning präglas av mångfald och förändring.

Substance abuse and sexual ill health often go hand in hand. Despite this, no previous studies have investigated whether, and if so how, young people’s sexuality is given meaning in child welfare assessments due to suspected substance abuse. To investigate this, 15 child welfare workers in Sweden were recruited for a semi-structured interview through a strategic selection. The interviews were examined with the support of thematic analysis, which resulted in an overarching theme showing a lack of an area of knowledge. The social workers stated that they had not been trained in SRHR during their basic training or through further training in the roles as child welfare workers. However, this did not mean that they dismissed sexual health matters, rather that they developed individual approaches to face such questions. A common and recurring motto was “to not investigate more than necessary”, which meant that social workers often focused on risk and vulnerability in relation to substance use and related life conditions, and they also related to other areas of knowledge such as violence and crime. The social workers often referred to young persons’ right to confidentiality and privacy when it came to talking about positive aspects of young people’s sexuality, which meant that young people were rarely given space to talk about possible lustful connections between substance use and their sexuality. Overall, the lack of an area of knowledge within the child welfare services illuminates a need for targeted educational efforts toward child welfare professionals, efforts that are in line with the Swedish national strategy regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.

Sex dolls are a complex phenomenon with several diverse possible emotional, sexual and therapeutic uses. They can be part of a broad variety of sexual practices, and also function as a sexual aid. However, the media discourse on sex dolls first and foremost concerns how we perceive the relationship between intimacy and technology. A critical discourse analysis of the Swedish media discourse on sex dolls reveals six themes which dominate the discourse: (a) the definition of what a human being is; (b) a discourse on the (technological and existential) future; (c) a social effort; (d) a loveless phenomenon; (e) men’s violence against women; and (f) pedophilia. Accordingly, this discourse is very conservative and normative in its view of sexuality, technology, and humanity. Overall, the dominant themes do not provide any space for positive effects of technology on human sexuality, and if they do, it is usually as a substitute for something else.

Young people with substance use problems often have an early sexual debut, an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies, and a high risk of experiencing sexual violence. At the same time, according to the national action plan on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), the social services in Sweden have an important role in addressing sexual health in various contexts, such as in child welfare investigations. Therefore, this study has investigated how Swedish child welfare workers understand and relate to sexual health issues in child welfare investigations regarding young people with substance use problems. Following a strategic sampling, 15 child welfare workers were interviewed. The interviews were examined with a thematic content analysis with results showing that sexual health issues represented an area where knowledge was lacking. This was largely connected to that the child welfare workers had not been taught about SRHR in their bachelor’s degree nor in their continued education within the child welfare system. As a result of this, they often developed their own individual, professional approach for assessing sexual health matters, guided by the principle of “not investigating more than necessary”. When addressing sexual health in their assessment work, the child welfare workers primarily focused on risk, vulnerability and exposure. Not assessing young peoples’ sexual health was seen as protecting the right to confidentiality and privacy. In summary, this meant that young people with a problematic substance use were seldom given opportunities to talk about their sexual health, and especially not about positive sexual experiences related to their substance use.

The use of alcohol or illicit substances by youths may be related to sexual motives and experiences. Accordingly, child welfare workers need to address young people's sexuality in their investigative work. In this study, we have examined the significance of different social categories, namely gender and sexual orientation, when child welfare workers assess young people with a substance use and their related sexual health. Fifteen child welfare workers were recruited through a strategic sampling to participate in semi-structured interviews, which were analysed using thematic content analysis. The results consist of three sub-themes: Sexually vulnerable girls; Boys as perpetrators; and Unseen LGBTQ+ youth. Together, these sub-themes constitute an overarching theme where the heterosexual matrix appears to be the interpretative framework when investigating a problematic substance use. The suggested implications for practice include education in sexual and reproductive health and rights for child welfare workers aiming to achieve an equitable assessment process for all youth with a problematic substance use. 

With a phenomenological approach, we explored transgender and non-binary people’s strategies to experience sexual well-being. Ten self-reports (seven interviews and three written texts) were analyzed, and the analysis resulted in six themes. The first three (Affirming oneself, Having access to care, and Being respected as one’s gender) were strategies for sexual well-being realized through affirming one’s identity, receiving the gender-confirming care wanted, and having one’s gender identity respected by others. The other three themes (Masturbating and fantasizing, Communicating and being open, and Being sexually free in queer spaces) were strategies for one aspect of sexual well-being—pleasure. The results describe strategies that all can learn from: the need to accept and appreciate oneself, not just adapt to gender norms of bodies and behaviors, and to communicate. In addition, it illuminates that being norm-breaking, or stepping out of the gendered paths presented to you, appears to provide new opportunities for people to learn what they enjoy, and this could lead to a broader repertoire of pleasurable sexual practices—practices that take bodily prerequisites into account

This article introduces an approach within social work called green social. It is argued that this approach has a critical potential in its ability to respond to urgent issues concerning people’s current and future living conditions. It is further argued that in addition to its traditional involvement in problematic distribution of resources, social work can act upon linkages between social issues and issues concerning environmental and climate crisis when integrating areas of knowledge from other disciplines. Such linkages imply a revision of the construct ”person-in-environment” that traditionally denote a delimited notion of environment as the ”social environment”, thereby disregarding the biophysical environment that human beings are a part of. The article discusses concepts such as ”sustainable welfare”, ”de-growth” and ”transition” and presents examples of so-called ecosocial interventions while also making an argument for strengthening community work in Sweden.

In the wake of the ongoing climate crisis and its negative effects on public health, it has been questioned by climate activists whether it is right to bring more children into the world. Moreover, according to previous scholarship, having one fewer child is the most high-impact lifestyle change individuals in developed countries can make in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But do climate awareness and recommendations to have fewer children have any impact on how lay people reason around reproductive decision-making? In this paper, which is based on focus group discussions with people from different generations, we show how various and sometimes conflicting discourses on reproductive norms and responsibility are negotiated. Even though participants were highly aware of the ongoing discussions around the climate crisis, in the end it had little bearing on their decision to have children or not, and they justified reproduction through addressing other ways to contribute to a better world.

Reproductive decision-making and fertility patterns change with time and place, and are influenced by contemporary societal factors. In this paper, we have studied biosocial aspects of reproductive decision-making over time and generations in a Nordic setting. The aim was to explore intergenerational changes and influences on decision-making, especially regarding preconditions to first birth. Twenty-six focus group interviews were conducted in southern Sweden, including a total of 110 participants aged 17–90 years. The analysis of the interviews resulted in six themes: (i) ‘Providing security – an intergenerational precondition’; (ii) ‘A growing smorgasbord of choices and requirements’; (iii) ‘Parenthood becoming a project’; (iv) ‘Stretched out life stages’; (v) ‘(Im)possibilities to procreate’; and (vi) ‘Intergenerational pronatalism’. Our findings reflect increasing expectations on what it means to be prepared for parenthood. Despite increasing awareness of the precariousness of romantic relationships, people still wish to build new families but try to be as prepared as possible for adverse events. The findings also show how increasing life expectancy and medical advancements have come to influence people’s views on their reproductive timeline.

Research on reproductive decision-making mainly focuses on women's experiences and desire for children. Men included in this type of research usually represent one-half of a heterosexual couple and/or men who are involuntarily childless. Perspectives from a broader group of men are lacking. This study is based on the results of a baseline questionnaire answered by 191 men aged 20–50 years who attended two sexual health clinics in two major Swedish cities. The questionnaire included questions about sociodemographic background, reproductive history and fertility, but also two open-ended questions focusing on reasons for having or not having children. The results of these two questions were analysed by manifest content analysis and resulted in five categories: ‘(non-)ideal images’, ‘to pass something on’, ‘personal development and self-image’, ‘the relationship with the (potential) co-parent’ and ‘practical circumstances and prerequisites’. Reasons for having children were mainly based on ideal images of children, family and parenthood. Meanwhile, reasons for not having children usually concerned practical issues. The type of answer given was related to men's procreative intentions but not to background characteristics. In conclusion, men raised many different aspects for and against having children. Therefore, reproductive decision-making should not be considered a non-choice among men.

Being aware of factors that affect fertility can help people make informed decisions about their reproductive futures. To some, however, fertility information leads to worry and self-blame. In this paper, we explore how people from different generations discuss fertility and reproductive decision-making, along with their perceptions of fertility information. The study was conducted in southern Sweden with 26 focus-group discussions that included a total of 110 participants aged 17-90 years. The material was analysed thematically. Our results show that fertility knowledge and openness to talking about fertility problems have increased over generations. Participants who were assigned female at birth were more often concerned about their fertility than those who were not, and fertility concerns were transferred from mothers to daughters. While age-related fertility concerns had been uncommon in older generations, participants aged 25-40 often expressed these concerns. Young adults appreciated being knowledgeable about fertility but simultaneously expressed how fertility information could lead to distress. Our conclusion is that fertility information was best received by high-school students, and efforts to improve fertility education in schools are therefore recommended.

Sex education can be described as an important part of health education in school and one way of strengthening health education could be a collaboration between different professionals in the school team. The aim of this study was to describe teachers' and school nurses' experiences and perspectives with regard to sex education among students aged 11-12 years and to explore potential influencing factors. We employed a qualitative design, and the teachers and school nurses were interviewed individually. A thematic analysis was conducted on the interviews and the results showed that the classroom was considered to be the teacher's arena. Tradition and attitudes between professionals could be obstacles that affect collaboration between teachers and nurses and the study showed that there remains much to be done before collaboration at the same level between the groups can be established.

In this article, based on ethnographic fieldwork, and interviews with 29 self-defined BDSM practitioners, I explore the incorporation process of BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochism) in Swedish society. I argue that the so-called ‘good sexuality’ described by Gayle Rubin (2011) and Don Kulick (2005) is still alive as a normative principle in this context. Drawing on Foucault’s concept ‘biopower’ (1976), I show that to gain acceptance and to fit into a society characterized by ‘good sexuality’, BDSM has to be normalized. This normalization process is closely connected to a middle-class hegemony and results in limitations that in various ways affect the practitioners, as well as impacting the transgressive core of BDSM.

Based on a five-year qualitative ethnographic study of Bondage and Discipline/Dominance and Submission/Sadism and Masochism (BDSM) in Sweden, this paper examines the process of becoming among BDSM practitioners. In-depth interviews were completed with 29 self-defined BDSM practitioners, and their accounts were analysed using thematic analysis. Focusing on the Deleuzian concept of becoming, BDSM is understood as a dynamic and collective phenomenon closely connected to fantasies, memories and longing, and enabled through flows of desire. Practising BDSM can be understood as a process of increasing expansion, creation and connection, in which desire is seen not as something we lack or need but rather as a process of striving and self-enhancement. Exploring the becoming process more fully can provide a better understanding as to why some people choose to practise BDSM.

This chapter, informed by ethnographic fieldwork in BDSM communities in Sweden focuses on the bodily aspects of BDSM. Drawing on the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty's concepts of the living body and intercorporeality, it analyses the embodied interactions, sensations and emotions that encompasses BDSM practice. BDSM can create spaces in which practitioners not only explore bodily boundaries, strong emotions and states of subspace and domspace, but it can also enable a wordless bodily empathy in which practitioners can experience feelings of belonging, intimacy and trust.

The chapter examines ethnographic fieldwork within the realm of BDSM, with a focus on the ethnographer´s emotions, participation, and etic reflections. Based on years of researching Swedish BDSM communities, with diary and field notes, the author reflects upon different situations and events which, in various ways, have had personal effects and given rise to ethical reflections and dilemmas as well as strong emotions. The complex relationships between the field, its actors, and the ethnographer are important and salient for all of those who engage in such fieldwork. Ethnographic work requires a high level of personal commitment but also enables a voice to be given to stigmatized populations, prejudices to be revealed, and informants’ feelings, lives, situations, dilemmas, and ambitions to be nuanced, though it can sometimes be very exhausting emotionally for the ethnographer. 

Homosexuality, bisexuality, transgender and queer have long been a sensitive topic in Christian churches. As society has changed, some denominations have become increasingly affirming, while others see the changes as incompatible with Christian values.

 A Conditional Community is based on in-depth interviews with 29 lgbtq Christians and is the first Swedish scientific study on the subject. Using a phenomenological approach, the author investigate how sexuality, intimacy and faith are experienced by the interviewees and how their Christian identity interacts with their identity as lgbtq people. 

A Conditional Community is aimed at teachers, researchers and students in fields such as religious studies, sexology, gender studies and psychology. The book is also of interest to professionals who require knowledge on the subject, such as pastors and therapists. Furthermore, it can serve as a basis for discussions and reflection on faith, sexuality and lgbtq in the Free Church contexts.

This article is based on a five-year qualitative ethnographic study of bondage and discipline/dominance and submission/sadism and masochism (BDSM) in Sweden. In-depth interviews were completed with 29 self-defined BDSM practitioners. In the article, I investigate spirituality in two different contexts, namely within BDSM practice and in the charismatic Christianity. With a focus on power dynamics, pain rituals, and altered states of consciousness, I discuss the questions: What meaning is given to the concept of spirituality in a BDSM context, and how does this spirituality resemble spirituality in Christianity? Which common denominators between BDSM practice and Christian belief can be found, and how should we interpret the parallels that the informants emphasize between practicing BDSM and having a Christian affiliation? The article aims to broaden our understanding for spirituality in different contexts, and thus contribute to both the research field of BDSM as well as to religion studies. And as such, I hope this study can bring some clarity to the different spiritual experiences individuals may encounter, whether it happens in a BDSM context or in a religious context.

Experiences of being LGBTQ1 within Swedish free-church environments have not been highlighted to any great extent. In the autumn of 2020, I participated, as an observing researcher, in a study group consisting of LGBTQ persons and LGBTQ allies focusing on LGBTQ in the Christian free-church environment. The discussions took their point of departure in the question how we ensure that congregations are a welcoming and safe place for LGBTQ people. This article is based on the conversations that took place during these meetings. In the articleI will examine how power relations and tensions were described and investigate how LGBTQ persons and their allies handle and challenge them. The results of the investigation show that free-church contexts are permeated with hegemonic heteronormativity, the structural power of which operates both visibly and covertly. The participants talk about unlivable compromises, emanating from membership always being conditional and subject to certain terms for LGBTQ persons. The participants narrated their experiences, ranging from subtle com- ments or silences to ostracism and exclusion. All participants testified to the existence of various forms of conversion efforts in contemporary free church environments and recounted examples of how they had been pressured in prayer and pastoral care and conversations in which they had been silenced or told that it is possible to change one’s sexual orientation or identity.

This study investigates experiences of polyamory in a society where monogamy is the norm. Polyamory is when more than two people are involved in an intimate and/or sexual relationship. The relationships are known to those involved, and everyone has the opportunity to have multiple relationships at the same time. In-depth interviews were completed with 22 persons in Sweden who identify as polyamorous. Drawing on Ahmed’s phenomenological concepts of turning points and lines and Halberstam’s concept of queer time and temporality, the following questions are explored: What turning points can be seen in the informants’ stories? And what consequences are the informants exposed to when heteronormative expectations are not followed? In the theoretical language of Ahmed, living a life within monogamous boundaries would be considered as being “in line”. Going beyond these monogamous heteronormative lines can result in more relational choices by which one has to find out what kind of relationship works best instead of following a ready-made template. The majority of the informants feel forced to conceal their relationship constellations in several situations and contexts. Living a queer life is seen by others in society as not only incomprehensible but also immature and inexperienced. Interactions with healthcare professionals seldom offer any relief from this; instead, the informants’ stories of these encounters can be interpreted as instances of being stopped and blocked, resulting in stress and shame.

Based on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork within BDSM communities in Sweden, this article focuses on links between non-monogamy and BDSM. Drawing on Halberstam´s concept of queer space, the following questions are investigated: What are the connections between BDSM and non-monogamous communities? How does interaction between BDSM and non-monogamous practices create non-normative logic? The transgression of one norm makes it easier to transgress other norms as well, providing opportunities to find new ways of organizing relationships beyond the norms of monogamy. In order for an individual to be able to fully explore kinks in BDSM practices and at the same time respect the boundaries of a partner, nonmonogamy emerges as one logical answer.

Young LGBTQ+ people are over-represented in various forms of state care. They experience hardships during their placements and staff competence in addressing specific needs among LGBTQ+ youth is lacking. In this article, we investigate whether and how LGTBQ+ issues are considered and described in digital marketing for state care providers. The material consists of the homepages of residential care homes and secure state care institutions, which we analyse using critical discourse analysis. The results show that LGBTQ+ issues are largely invisible. Of the approximately 1,000 existing state care providers, only twenty stated that they worked with or had competence in LGBTQ+ issues. Among these, no secure state care institution offered LGBTQ+ competence at the time of the study. The descriptions of how care providers work with LGBTQ+ issues are characterised by heteronormativity where there is a mix of two types of language on the homepages regarding LGBTQ+ youth; on the one hand, a heteronormative, traditional description based on a binary understanding of gender; and, on the other, an LGBTQ+ inclusive language is used. However, the LGBTQ+ affirmative language has been imposed upon the traditional rather than being integrated into it, which comes across as superficial and unclear. International studies show that LGBTQ+ youth are over-represented in various forms of state care. Using critical discourse analysis, we investigated how LGBTQ+ youth, as a target group, are described and how LGBTQ+ competence is presented on the home pages of residential care homes and secure state care institutions for young people in Sweden. The results show that LGBTQ is largely invisible. Of the approximately 1,000 existing residential care homes, only 20 stated that they worked with or had competence in LGBTQ+ issues. No secure state care institution offered LGBTQ+ competence at the time of the study.

Avhandlingen bygger på två separata delstudier förenade av den övergripande tematiken hedersnormer. Ur ett fenomenologiskt livsvärldsperspektiv undersöks tankar och erfarenheter i två olika grupper. Den första delstudien bygger på djupintervjuer med 15 ungdomar som lever i kontexter där familjegemenskap, socialt anseende och kvinnlig kyskhet ges stor betydelse, och där föreställningar kopplade till detta präglar deras vardag och handlingsutrymme. Ungdomarna har olika etnisk och religiös bakgrund men har vuxit upp i samma bostadsområde. Med sex av dem har uppföljande intervjuer gjorts efter några år. Delstudie nummer två har genomförts i samverkan med Kriminalvården. Den omfattar en analys av 64 domar varur olika grad av hedersrelaterade omständigheter kunnat utläsas, samt djupintervjuer med 13 personer dömda för brott som av myndighetens personal bedömts ha koppling till hedersnormer. Även här varierar etnisk och religiös bakgrund såväl som brottstyper och strafftider. Två av de dömda klienterna har intervjuats vid mer än ett tillfälle. I intervjuerna berörs upplevelser av normer och normkonflikter kring olika fenomen som familjelojalitet, värdering och reglering av relationer och sexualitet, kön och könsroller, våld, (icke-)svenskhet etc. Berättelserna beskriver ett invecklat spänningsfält mellan å ena sidan individuell frihet och autonomi och å andra sidan betydelsen av grupptillhörighet och kollektiv identitet. Gemensamt för båda grupper är att de lever i sammansatta världar där hederns betydelse förvisso är påtaglig men samtidigt svår att urskilja från andra påverkansfaktorer. I de uppföljande intervjuerna kan förändringar i normerna både på individ- och familjenivå skönjas över tid. Hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck har varit en uttalad angelägenhet för den svenska staten under flera decennier. Frågan har laddats med betydelse på olika plan och lett till konflikter och positioneringar i den akademiska världen såväl som i politik och praktik. Under åren har kontexten kring forskningsfrågorna förändrats genom sociala skeenden och politiska åtgärder i syfte att bekämpa problematiken. Detta syns bland annat i reformerna av lagstiftningen, där nya brottsrubriceringar med särskild inriktning på heder tillkommit, samt i nya formuleringar om ansvar för att motverka hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck i grund- och gymnasieskolans läroplaner. Därmed blir det intressant att resonera kring hur samhällets försök att komma tillrätta med hedersproblematiken kan förstås utifrån det empiriska underlaget, det vill säga rösterna från personer som själva på olika sätt lever eller har levt i kontexter präglade av hedersnormer. Avhandlingen utmynnar således i en diskussion kring hur systemnivån i form av samhälleliga intentioner och interventioner förhåller sig till nyanserna i de berördas livsvärldar. Några av de drag som framstår är att problematiken inte är enkel att förstå och tolka, och att hedern som fenomen är svår att särskilja och ringa in på det sätt som lagar och styrdokument kräver. Genom avhandlingen belyses att hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck förvisso är en allvarlig problematik som behöver mötas av insatser på många olika nivåer, men att det är fråga om ett komplext fenomen som innebär en utmaning för många olika verksamheter vad gäller både förståelse och hantering, och som kräver ett relationellt och dialogbaserat förhållningssätt med de målgrupper som berörs.

Since July 1st, 2020, honour is viewed as an aggravating circumstance in criminal cases in Sweden, and it is suggested that honour related violence and oppression should become a criminal offence in its own right. Interventions directed towards victims of honour crimes have been implemented, but fewer have targeted the offenders. The purpose of this article is to mirror the Swedish legal and discursive framework against the perspective of the perpetrators. While we discuss findings with relevance for practitioners, particularly in the light of recent legislative changes, our main focus is set on subjective understandings of honour crimes. In particular, questions about the perpetrators’ norms and worldviews, their perceptions of the concept of honour, and their experiences of the Swedish justice system are investigated. Using court verdicts and deep interviews, we highlight important themes under the following four headlines: (1) Collectivism, norms, and traditions, (2) Complexities of honour crimes, (3) Marginalization, social vulnerability, and stereotyping, and (4) Reflections in retrospect.

This article gives insight into some of the complexities that courts will have to handle given the recent and pending changes in Swedish legislation and provides knowledge that can be implemented in social and legal work to combat honour related violence and oppression.  

Hur kan vi förstå sex mot ersättning, samhällets reglering, sociala insatser och individers erfarenheter? Syftet med denna antologi äör att skapa fördjupad förståelse för frågan genom att belysa områdets komplexitet, nyanser och gråzoner. i boken belyses hur relationen mellan samhälleliga åtgärder och individuella erfarenheter påverkas av den sociala, rättsliga och politiska kontexten. Författarna presenterar en rad olika teman såsom sexarbetares sociala mobilisering, tillämpning och konsekvenser av sociala och rättsliga åtgärder, sexsäljares utsatthet för våld, sexköpares resonemang om sina sexuella praktiker, erfarenheter av digital och kommersiell dejting samt erfarenheter av att sälja sex i relation till dominerande diskurser om sexhandel.

Survivors Healing from Abuse: Recovery through Exposure (SHARE) is an eight-week therapy group for incarcerated women who have experienced sexual violence victimization. SHARE requires each member to complete an imaginal exposure and to listen when others share their experiences of victimization. While trauma-focused group interventions including SHARE are associated with reductions in internalizing symptoms, little work has examined how group characteristics predict symptom decreases. The purpose of this study was to examine whether group size was associated with symptom changes pre- to posttreatment. Participants (n = 140 across 29 groups) completed self-report measures of posttraumatic stress symptoms before and after completing SHARE. Multilevel modeling revealed the majority of the variance in posttreatment symptoms was attributed to individual factors rather than group factors. Symptom change was comparable for groups of two to eight women; declines in symptom improvement were observed at a group size of 10 participants. 

Backgroud: To become a parent of a child who is born small for gestational age can lead to challenges in addition to the newly accuried parenting role. There is currently a lack of knowledge regarding parents´experiences if having a child born small for gestional age. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the experienve of becoming a parent of a child small for gestional age. Design and method: A qualitativ inductive approach was chosen with grounded theory as a method, a stratagic selection was used and individual interviews wiht open questions were performed. Results: The results showed that the parents expressed quilt over the childs´size and focused on the aility to nourish their child to keep their unexpectedly small child alive. An experienced concern about the childs´food intake could be seen throughout the entire interview material and the need for information was great. A common experience of the parents was that constant feeding of the child dominates their lived. Conclusion: The conclusion is that the unexpectedly small size of the child awakens the parent´s instinct to provide life-sustaining care and the parents need increased support and more information around the child´s condition. This requires well-trained professionals, because parents to children born SGA often harbour feelings of unpreparedness and guilt. Practice implications: Increased understanding and knowledge about parents´experience of having a child born SGA, healthcare sevices can optimize the potential for better attachment between parent and child as well as offer appropritae support.

In recent years, the dominant Western discourse on "female genital mutilation" (FGM) has increasingly been challenged by scholars. Numerous researchers contest both the terminology used and the empirical claims made in what has come to be called "the standard tale" of FGM (also termed "female genital cutting" [FGC]). The World Health Organization (WHO), a major player in setting the global agenda on this issue, maintains that all medically unnecessary cutting of the external female genitalia, no matter how slight, should be banned as torture and a violation of the human right to bodily integrity. However, the WHO targets only non-Western forms of female-only genital cutting, raising concerns about gender bias and cultural imperialism. Here, we summarize ongoing critiques of the WHO's terminology, ethicolegal assumptions, and empirical claims, including the claim that non-Western FGC as such constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. To this end, we highlight recent comparative studies of medically unnecessary genital cutting of all types, including those affecting adult women and teenagers in Western societies, individuals with differences of sex development (DSD), transgender persons, and males. In so doing, we attempt to clarify the grounds for a growing critical consensus that current anti-FGM laws and policies may be ethically incoherent, empirically unsupportable, and legally unsustainable.

PURPOSE: This study investigates whether Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is associated with changes in sexual function and satisfaction and how such changes are experienced, focusing on invisible impairments after ABI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A study-specific questionnaire was distributed in 2018-2019. The sample included individuals aged 20-90 years diagnosed with ABI due to subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), trauma, infection, or anoxia (ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage excluded), who participated in brain injury rehabilitation in Sweden, 2014-2016. Chi-square and Logistic regression analyses were used.

RESULTS: The study consists of 250 participants (response rate was 40%). Among participants 78% (194/250) had resumed sexual life. Participants reporting sexual changes also experienced more consequences related to ABI. Those with decreased sexual desire (63%, 148/234) reported more ABI consequences, including decreased memory (86% vs 65%, p = 0.000), decreased concentration ability (82% vs 65%, p = 0.003), and increased tiredness (91% vs 70%, p = 0.000) compared to those with intact desire. Such consequences can be invisible to others.

CONCLUSION: Visible impairments are known to impact sexual functions and satisfaction after ABI. Our results show how invisible impairments also have a great impact. From a biopsychosocial perspective, these results imply that individuals should receive sexual rehabilitation, irrespective of ABI impairment.

In relation to brain injury rehabilitation, research has stressed the importance of including sexuality issues due to increased risk for sexual dysfunctions after Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). This study aims to explore experiences after non-stroke ABI concerning individual and relational aspects of sexuality, received information about sexuality at rehabilitation, and gender differences. A postal nationwide survey was conducted in Sweden, 2018-2019. The sample included individuals who had participated in brain injury rehabilitation 2014-2016, response rate 40% (250/624). Among all participants 78% had resumed sexual activity, and there was a significant difference between males (84%, 118/140) and females (69%, 76/110, p = 0.004). Among all participants, 95% reported physical intimacy as important, 80% considered sex as important on an individual level, and 91% stated sexuality as important for the relationship (no gender differences). Significantly more females (52%) than males (22%) reported that they had tried sexual aids (p = 0.000), and more males (29%) than females (16%) reported that professionals addressed sexuality issues during brain injury rehabilitation (p = 0.024). However, only a few participants were offered specific sexual counseling during brain injury rehabilitation, such as individual counseling (3%), couples counseling (2%), and group counseling (3%). To conclude, the vast majority valued both individual and relational aspects of sex and sexuality highly, and more males than females had resumed sexual activity. Few had received information about sexuality after ABI, and even fewer females compared to males reported that the issue was raised during rehabilitation. Clinical implications are discussed in relation to sexual rehabilitation.