Protective factors from multiple perspectives : A narrative analysis of autobiography’s written by individuals who have been raised in risk environments

This is a candidate’s thesis for the programme for Social Workers at the Linneaus University in Växjö. This study has the purpose to understand what protective-factors that may be important for children who grow up in a risk environment. This has been done through reading autobiographies written by adults who have been born and raised in destructive environments. The data has been collected with the use of a narrative analysis. The result has then been viewed and analyzed with the help of attachment-theory, a salutogene perspective and with ecological systems theory. The results from this candidate’s thesis shows that we have been able to identify protective factors in three major categories; Individual attributes, relationships and factors that exists outside of the family environment. These factors have been analyzed and explained through the perspective of attachment-theory, a salutogene perspective and with ecological systems theory. Our findings suggest that there exists several important relationships between our result, the previous research and what the theories suggest is important for children as protective factors. They are: basic need of security, need of development and understanding and finally an importance in the needs for children to have a sense of coherence