"Man ska vara så himla lyckad" En studie av kuratorers erfarenheter gällande psykisk ohälsa bland unga

The aim of this study was to examine mental illness among adolescents in the age group 13- 18 in the municipality of Lund. We studied the topic based on counselors experiences. There have been several reports in media concerning an increase of mental illness among youth. Therefore we considered this as an interesting issue to examine. This study consists of seven qualitative interviews and one telephone interview with counselors. Six of the counselors work at schools, one of them at a psychiatric clinic for children and the last one at a youth reception. During the interviews the counselors expressed their thoughts concerning how to define mental illness, factors that cause it, gender-differences and efforts to help and prevent mental illness. To analyze our results we used Fromm´s notion of autonomy, the demand control model and gender theories. The main results were that counselors perceive that mental illness has increased. The counselors presented various thoughts about risk factors such as childhood experiences, stress and demands, anguish concerning possible options in life and bullying. The majority of the counselors found it hard to define the concept of mental illness. They presented gender differences referring to mental illness. The distinction between boys and girls was explained by child nurture