"När lagen säger nej men hjärtat säger ja" - Etisk press och stress i arbetet med barnfamiljer i behov av ekonomiskt bistånd
(2025) SOPB63 20251School of Social Work
- Abstract
- A growing proportion of families in Sweden are struggling to make enough money. According to a survey in 2023, families are having difficulty buying nutritious food, seasonal clothing or allowing their children to participate in leisure activities. However, everyone living in Sweden has, according to the Social Service Act, the right to a fair standard of living, and those in need can apply for financial assistance from the Social Services. This study aimed to examine how social workers describe their emotional experiences of processing applications for financial assistance from families with children, where the requirements of the Social Welfare Act are not met, and how they handle these emotions and experiences. The method chosen for... (More)
- A growing proportion of families in Sweden are struggling to make enough money. According to a survey in 2023, families are having difficulty buying nutritious food, seasonal clothing or allowing their children to participate in leisure activities. However, everyone living in Sweden has, according to the Social Service Act, the right to a fair standard of living, and those in need can apply for financial assistance from the Social Services. This study aimed to examine how social workers describe their emotional experiences of processing applications for financial assistance from families with children, where the requirements of the Social Welfare Act are not met, and how they handle these emotions and experiences. The method chosen for this study was qualitative interviews with six social workers, working with financial assistance in Social Service, from five different municipalities in Skåne. The interviews were analyzed with the help of Andrew Jameton's ethical stress and Lazarus and Folkman's coping. Thematic analysis was chosen as a processing method for the data. The results show that social workers experience a strong emotional impact when meeting families with children, especially when making decisions that involve refusing financial assistance. They are all describing an internal conflict between the demands of the professional role and their moral values, which creates ethical stress. This stress is amplified when the decision is not perceived as fair by the social workers, even though it is by the legislation. The coping strategies that emerged in the interviews were both emotion-focused and problem-focused. The social workers describe how they emotionally distance themselves from the clients' situations to cope with the demands of the profession over time, while at the same time using concrete problem-solving strategies, such as the case workers changing clients with other colleagues or focusing on the children's needs when the parents' actions cause frustration. The study highlights how emotional, ethical, and relational dimensions interact in everyday social work. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9201233
- author
- Nilsson, Liselott LU and Rosenqvist, Paulina LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOPB63 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- social work, social service, financial assistance, children, family, family with children, low income, discretion, coping strategies, Sweden, grievability, socialt arbete, socialtjänst, ekonomiskt bistånd, socialt arbete med barnfamiljer, låg inkomst, handlingsutrymme, hanteringsstrategier, Sverige, att kunna sörja
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9201233
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-17 13:26:54
- date last changed
- 2025-06-17 13:26:54
@misc{9201233,
abstract = {{A growing proportion of families in Sweden are struggling to make enough money. According to a survey in 2023, families are having difficulty buying nutritious food, seasonal clothing or allowing their children to participate in leisure activities. However, everyone living in Sweden has, according to the Social Service Act, the right to a fair standard of living, and those in need can apply for financial assistance from the Social Services. This study aimed to examine how social workers describe their emotional experiences of processing applications for financial assistance from families with children, where the requirements of the Social Welfare Act are not met, and how they handle these emotions and experiences. The method chosen for this study was qualitative interviews with six social workers, working with financial assistance in Social Service, from five different municipalities in Skåne. The interviews were analyzed with the help of Andrew Jameton's ethical stress and Lazarus and Folkman's coping. Thematic analysis was chosen as a processing method for the data. The results show that social workers experience a strong emotional impact when meeting families with children, especially when making decisions that involve refusing financial assistance. They are all describing an internal conflict between the demands of the professional role and their moral values, which creates ethical stress. This stress is amplified when the decision is not perceived as fair by the social workers, even though it is by the legislation. The coping strategies that emerged in the interviews were both emotion-focused and problem-focused. The social workers describe how they emotionally distance themselves from the clients' situations to cope with the demands of the profession over time, while at the same time using concrete problem-solving strategies, such as the case workers changing clients with other colleagues or focusing on the children's needs when the parents' actions cause frustration. The study highlights how emotional, ethical, and relational dimensions interact in everyday social work.}},
author = {{Nilsson, Liselott and Rosenqvist, Paulina}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{"När lagen säger nej men hjärtat säger ja" - Etisk press och stress i arbetet med barnfamiljer i behov av ekonomiskt bistånd}},
year = {{2025}},
}