"Att göra det som är rätt även om ingen ser på" : En kvalitativ intervjustudie om socialarbetares etiska resonemang kring sin yrkesroll

This study aims to examine how social workers in Swedish Child Protective services regard ethical values and what strategies they practice to manage ethical dilemmas occurring in their daily work. Furthermore, we aim to examine if there are differences or similarities in how ethical issues are handled among social workers based on their length of experience in the profession. Qualitative interviews were performed with nine social workers employed in front-line social services, all specialized in child and youth care. The interviewed social workers were chosen from three different municipalities in the county of Stockholm. The theoretical framework used in the analysis was professional ethics with concepts such as virtue ethics and duty ethics, and concepts from the psychological coping strategy model. Results indicate that social work in Child Protective services is a value-based profession and as such bound to the professionals own individual morality and virtue ethics. There are only minor differences in ethical values and strategies between those with long versus those with short experience and that the influence of virtue ethics in social workers practice is largely confined by the duty ethics governing their profession. Key words: Child Protective services, social workers, ethical values, virtue ethics, duty ethics, coping strategies. Nyckelord: Socialt arbete med social barnavård, socialarbetare, dygdetik, pliktetik, copingstrategier