”Jag vet att de bara låtsaslyssnar på vad jag säger.” Ungdomars upplevelse av delaktighet i barnavårdsutredningar.

The purpose of this study was to explore young people's participation and experience of participation in child protection investigations. The study was conducted using qualitative methodology and is based on interviews with four adolescents aged 13-19 years old who have experience of child protection investigations. Our chosen method has made it possible for us get a deeper understanding of young people's own experiences of participation. In order to analyze the material we have used Shiers (2001) model of children's participation, symbolic interactionism, and some concepts relating to shame and pride. The results show that all adolescents have had the opportunity to be heard during the investigations, but it is different to what degree they feel that someone has listened to them. Two of the young people have been involved in their investigation, been listened to and have had impact on the decisions taken. The results indicate that it does not seem to be the external factors, such as how many meetings they have had, or what quality it was on the information, that matters if the social worker did not manage to convey to the young people that what they told was of any importance. The results also show that all young people want to be involved in the investigations but that they often experience some obstacles. Such an obstacle may be that you do not feel that what you say is important. Another obstacle may be that you have too many negative experiences of social services in the past. All young people point to the importance of having a good and close relationship with their social secretary to overcome such obstacles.