...as well as from other countries report that the prevalence of mental health problems among children and youth increase and that it is important to act to stop this negative trend. In Sweden several projects have been launched by the government, the Association of Swedish Authorities and Communities (SKL) and the Royal Academy of Sciences to meet the demand for action. Researchers from the CHILD group are involved in several of these projects.
Two projects concern Child and School Health services. One means to support and follow up children in risk for mental health problem is to have health documentation that follows the child through his/her whole childhood. It requires that health professionals in different organizations use a common language and a common health record. We investigate the utility of the health classification system ICF-CY as a common language for exchange of health information, especially information concerning psychosocial functioning in child health care and school health care.  In another project an educational tool to be used by school nurses in proactive health dialogues with children is evaluated.
Several projects concern positive aspects of mental health, i.e how well being can be characterized and promoted in preschool, school and other natural settings for children. Two members of the CHILD group recently finished their thesis within this area of research. Anne Lillvist has studied social competence in children with and without a need for special support in preschools and Tobias Edbom has studied self-esteem and sense of coherence in children with ADHD from childhood to adulthood. We have recently also started a project aimed to identify indicators of children’s mental health in primary community and county council statistics that can be used to monitor the effects of interventions on a public health level.
The Royal Academy of Sciences at present runs a project with the aim to do a systematic search of the research literature concerning the causal relationships between mental health and school factors. Several CHILD researchers participate in this work. Two reviews have been conducted, one on longitudinal studies of the relationship between school factors and mental health, and a second on earlier reviews of the relationship between mental health and school factors. Both reviews have a special focus on the relationship between achievement and mental helath. It seems like achievement is a protective factor for mental health but also that good mental health predict achievement. The results of the reviews will be presented at a three day conference  April 26-28. More information about the conference and registration can be found at http://www.kva.se/en/Events-List/Event/?eventId=204. Two of the speakers of the conference are Prof. Koji Miyamoto, OECD, France and Sir Michael Rutter, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK.

/Mats Granlund, professor in Disability studies and CHILD research leader

Photo: Maria Jacobsson

Sara Hvit, doctoral student at School of Education and Communication, is involved in the project The preschool as Children's language environment. Her research area involves the youngest children's language expressions and how these are portrayed and utilized in the preschool setting. One of her main interests focuses on experimentation with 3d and digital material. Through digitalization new linguistic aspects have arrived. The view on language accordingly has to be expanded.

Sara Hvit is a doctoral student in Education at School of Education and Communication and she is involved in the language project "Pre-school as children's language arena". She also works with teacher education with a major in Pre-school Education. Sara is pre-school teacher and has a Master degree in Education.

Click on "Läs" to read a message regarding submitting a paper to a themed edition of the Journalo of Nursing Management, forwarded by Ruth Davies from Swansea University.

Marie Golsäter, doctoral student at School of Health Sciences, passed her part time in December 2009.

Marie Golsäter is currently researching on nurses's experience in structural child health care dialogues with parents.  

Click on "Läs" to read Margareta Adolfsson's last report from UNC Chapel Hill. The report was written in December 2009.