To Örebro University

Background: Finding modifiable predictors of paternal depression symptoms is helpful for developing interventions. The aim is to assess the unidirectional and/or bidirectional associations between paternal postpartum depression symptoms and coparenting among fathers of infants and toddlers.

Methods: Longitudinal data were collected prospectively from 429 fathers of infants aged 0–24 months (median = 8 months) in Sweden, with 6- and 18-month follow-ups. All fathers participated in at least two of three waves of data collection, and multiple imputation was used for missing values. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was used to detect depression symptoms (≥10 points), while the Brief Coparenting Relationship Scale measured the coparenting relationship. A cross-lagged panel model was used to estimate the associations between paternal depression symptoms and coparenting relationship quality over time, controlling for several known covariates and COVID-19 exposure.

Results: Fathers with higher coparenting scores at Time 1 and 2 had less depression symptoms at Time 3, and fathers with more depression symptoms at Time 2 had lower coparenting scores at Time 3. Plotted probabilities of having at least mild depression symptoms revealed a multifold increase in the probability of depression symptoms at Time 3 for fathers with minimal coparenting scores at Times 1 and 2, respectively, compared to fathers with mean coparenting scores at Times 1 and 2, respectively.

Limitations: Causal links cannot be determined using the current non-experimental study design. Using the EPDS alone may have missed some fathers with depression symptoms.

Conclusions: Clinicians seeking to reduce paternal depression symptoms should help strengthen the coparenting relationship.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To examine if the professional support that fathers received from midwives and child health nurses was associated with improvements in fathers' coparenting. A secondary aim was to investigate if there were any support differences between fathers based on parity.

BACKGROUND: Stronger coparenting is associated with improved maternal, paternal and child health. It is unclear if routine prenatal and postnatal professional support is associated with improved coparenting in fathers of infants.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional online survey.

METHODS: In total, 612 fathers of infants (aged 0-24 months) completed baseline data between November 2018 and March 2020. Socio-demographics, pregnancy control variables, social support, professional support, being invited to attend and attending three specific visits for fathers, respectively, and the fathers' coparenting relationship, using the Brief Coparenting Relationship Scale, were assessed. The STROBE checklist was used as the reporting guideline for this study.

RESULTS: Fathers' attendance at child health visits, support from the prenatal and postnatal midwife, respectively, and total support from the child health nurse, are associated with more positive coparenting. Primiparous fathers reported more received social and professional support, as well as a more positive coparenting relationship than multiparous fathers.

CONCLUSIONS: Receiving clinical support from both midwives and child health nurses is associated with fathers' positive coparenting. All fathers should be invited and encouraged to attend prenatal, postnatal and child health visits to further support their coparenting relationship. Relative to primiparous fathers, multiparous fathers may require targeted and additional clinical support regarding their coparenting relationship.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: With fathers becoming more involved in childrearing, having stronger coparenting skills can help them better adapt to their parental roles. Our findings help understand how routine professional support from midwives and child health nurses are experienced among new fathers and that multiparous fathers are in further need of coparenting support.

Background: Previous research has suggested that religiosity contributes to preventing mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, among adolescents. However, it is reasonable to suspect that the protective effect of religiosity on mental health problems is relatively stronger in immigrant populations than in native populations since immigrants are more likely to be challenged by experiences of migration, resettlement, and discrimination. The current study tests and compares the protective effects of religiosity on the mental health problems of adolescent natives and immigrants in Sweden.

Design: Three waves of longitudinal data from 4,366 adolescents in Sweden were retrieved from Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU). The data were collected between 2010/2011 and 2012/2013, when the participants were on average 14-16 years old. Three subsamples were analysed separately, including natives (n = 2,459), first-generation immigrants (n = 560), and second-generation immigrants (n = 1,347). Latent growth curve models were estimated and plotted.

Results: Religiosity predicted less mental health problems among first- and second-generation immigrants throughout the period of data collection, from age 14 to age 16. By contrast, religiosity was associated with more initial mental health problems among adolescent natives.

Conclusion: To prevent mental health problems among adolescents, the findings of the current study suggest that it may be necessary to develop specific prevention strategies for specific adolescent populations. Also, early interventions to facilitate religiosity among adolescent immigrants may have lasting, preventive effects on their mental health problems.

Adolescents who feel depressed are likely to experience social isolation from friends. Previous studies have put forward at least four hypotheses that can account for the association between felt depression and social isolation. The hypotheses are: (1) adolescents who are rejected tend to feel more depressed, (2) adolescents who feel depressed tend to become rejected, (3) adolescents who withdraw from friends tend to feel more depressed, and (4) adolescents who feel depressed tend to withdraw from friends. The present study aims to test these four hypotheses in ethnically diverse contexts in three countries. Two waves of data from England (n = 515), Sweden (n = 1,228), and Germany (n = 869) were obtained from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU). One separate stochastic actor-oriented model of the longitudinal coevolution of friendship networks and felt depression was estimated for each of the three countries using the statistical package RSiena. The results consistently indicated that, in all three countries, adolescents who felt depressed were rejected by their peers. Also, the results consistently indicated that adolescents who felt depressed sought more friends, and the results therefore refuted the suggestion that adolescents who feel depressed withdraw from their friends. The findings of the study can inform health-promotion interventions that attempt to limit the social isolation of adolescents who feel depressed in ethnically diverse contexts. More specifically, the study suggests that the social isolation of adolescents who feel depressed may be limited through interventions that reduce the rejection that these adolescents experience from their peers.

Background: Fathers want more professional and social support during the transition to fatherhood. It is unclear if these supports are associated with decreased depressive symptoms in fathers of infants.

Aim: The aim of the current study was to assess if fathers' self-reported received professional and social support were related to changes in the odds for having depressive symptoms, with interaction terms focusing on differences of support based on the fathers' parity.

Methods: In total, 612 fathers from Sweden completed a Facebook-advertised anonymous online survey. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was used to detect depressive symptoms (≥10 points). Multiple imputation of missing data was performed. Logistic regressions were used, with interaction terms for fathers' parity.

Results: Around 21% of fathers had depressive symptoms. There were no associations between depressive symptoms frequencies and paternal parity. Fathers reported fewer depressive symptoms when they received professional support from the prenatal midwife (OR = .39, p = .007), labor/birth midwife/nurse team (OR = .42, p = .021), and child health nurse (OR = .25, p = .001), as well as social support from their partner and if they had a higher income (odds ratios vary in different models). Multiparous fathers received significantly less professional and social support and were less frequently invited to child health visits than primiparous fathers.

Limitations: The data collected was cross-sectional; therefore, causal links cannot be determined.

Conclusions: Both primiparous and multiparous fathers should receive postnatal depression screenings and interventions to help reduce their depressive symptoms.

The present dissertation aims to understand some of the opportunities for, and influences on, the social integration of adolescents of foreign origin in Sweden. Informed by previous research, the dissertation suggests that successful social integration involves friendship formation between peers of similar origins (intra-origin friendship formation) as well as friendship formation between peers of different origins (inter-origin friendship formation). Social integration can be difficult to achieve in practice because most individuals tend to be homophilic and form intra-origin friendships rather than inter-origin friendships.

Four studies based on longitudinal data are presented in the dissertation. The first study seeks to widen the understanding of refugee girls’ friendship formation through a qualitative analysis of interviews with refugee girls. The second study estimates stochastic actor-oriented models to investigate the friendship formation of adolescents with supportive and/or controlling parent-child relationships. The third article presents cross-lagged panel models for the reciprocal longitudinal associations between friendship formation and two forms of leisure: visits to youth centers and participation in structured leisure activities. Finally, the fourth study uses stochastic actor-oriented models to analyze with whom adolescents form friendships when they are involved in different forms of digital leisure, including online communication, video watching, and digital gaming.

The refugee girls in the qualitative study stated that they formed close friendships with family members, such as cousins and siblings, rather than with peers of native origin because they experienced the latter as too dissimilar from themselves. The adolescents in the first quantitative study formed relatively more inter-origin friendships when their parents were supportive and fewer inter-origin friendships when their parents were controlling. According to the third study, visits to youth centers were associated with a larger number of intra-origin friendships among adolescents of foreign origin, while participation in structured leisure activities, such as sports and cultural projects, was related to more friendship formation regardless of origin. The fourth study suggested that native adolescents who were involved in digital gaming formed fewer friendships with native peers and had fewer friends outside of the school class, and foreign adolescents who communicated more online formed fewer friendships with native classmates but more friendships outside of the school class.

All four studies indicate that the social integration of adolescents of foreign origin is not an automatic process that invariably happens when adolescents of different origins are mixed in the same location. When adolescents organize their own social lives away from the involvement of adults, they seem to remain or become more homophilic and form more friendships with peers of their own origin. By contrast, native and foreign adolescents tend to form more inter-origin friendships when adults provide them with support and structured social activities. In other words, the social integration of foreign adolescents seems to require supportive and committed adults, who contribute to facilitating inter-origin friendship formation.

This article explores refugee girls’ talk about friendship formation. Friendship is a complex process and a subjective experience. The study participants stressed similarity and cultural affinity as important criteria of forming friendships. Those who attended schools with a mixture of students described their native peers as having different temperaments and interests. Relatives were referred to as being best friends who one could trust and confide in. This suggests the need for a broad conceptualisation of friendship in research and practice.

In contemporary politics, the category of victimhood confers rights and recognition. An inclusive discussion about the construction and conferral of victimhood, which includes individuals from different social backgrounds, need be informed by the possible uses of victimhood in political discourse. The present study investigates how individuals and groups are positioned as victims by mainstream Swedish politicians. A constructionist discourse analysis inspired by positioning theory was performed of eight longer political speeches and fifty-six addresses to the Swedish parliament, held over the course of a year. The results suggest that individuals in the ‘normal’ majority, comprising the most numerous and normatively dominant group of society, were positioned as victims. Heterodox minorities, which had fundamentally different morals and political ambitions compared to the ‘normal’ majority, were positioned as offenders. The study argues that a more inclusive construction of victimhood could be accomplished by engaging with heterodox minorities through dialogue.

The social integration of adolescents of foreign origin is of much importance to contemporary Swedish politics, and knowledge is needed about the associations between different forms of leisure and social integration. The present study tests the associations between visits to youth centers and participation in structured leisure activities, on the one hand, and having friends regardless of origin, of native origin, and of foreign origin, on the other. Two-wave longitudinal data from 203 adolescents of foreign origin were collected, including friendship nominations from 1,185 peers. Cross-lagged panel models were constructed, controlling for relevant confounders. Visits to youth centers positively predicted the number of friends of foreign origin, while participation in structured leisure activities positively predicted the number of friends regardless of origin. In conclusion, structured leisure activities appear better than youth centers for promoting the social integration of adolescents of foreign origin into networks of friends of different origins.

Earlier research from Western countries has indicated that individuals with low socioeconomic status (SES) initiate tobacco smoking even though smoking is a stigmatized practice. We propose that theoretical developments of Bourdieu's theories on capital can reveal a plausible mechanism that explains smoking motivation in the face of stigmatization, and we perform a double-blind randomized controlled experiment with the impressions of a smoking adolescent girl to test and elaborate on our proposition. The empirical data was collected through questionnaires distributed to 622 Swedish adolescents during the fall of 2015. Half the questionnaires included a picture of a smoking girl and half the questionnaires included an identical picture without the act of smoking. Binary logistic regressions indicate that the girl in the picture was perceived as significantly less likable, more popular, less kind, less compassionate, more deceitful, more conceited, and more liable to bully when she smoked a cigarette than when she did not smoke. The theoretical analysis implies that adolescents with low SES may seek to smoke in the face of stigmatization because of a motivating mechanism that functions in accordance with Bourdieu's economic logic of action. The concluding section presents implications for tobaccocontrol policies.