“Det förebyggande, det är ju egentligen grunden till allt men det är också det man gör minst” : En kvalitativ studie om skolkuratorers syn på förebyggande arbete med nätmobbning och deras förhållningssätt till sociala medier

The purpose of this study was to analyze school counselors perspective on a preventive work with cyberbullying and social media in order to understand how they, in a digital age, perceive their professional role and discretion in a work with social media and preventing cyberbullying. A qualitative study was undertaken which included six semistructured interviews with school counselors who work with pupils between grade 4-9. The empirical data was analyzed with previous research and theoretical perspectives relevant to our study’s purpose. Results of our empirical data showed that there’s an absence of approach in school counselors work with social media and preventing cyberbullying, despite the fact that social media is an established arena. This absence of approach is based on the unclear expectations that school counselors experience in their discretion and professional role, due to a use of social medias in their work. The use of social media can create an uncertainty in the school counselor's profession as it opens up time- and geographical boundaries. The study shows that school counselors have a lack of knowledge in social media, which contributes to the fact that there aren’t enough conditions for successfully preventing cyberbullying