Konsten att se livet från den ljusa sidan - en textanalytisk studie om maskrosbarns skyddsfaktorer

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the protective factors that enables vulnerable children to grow up into well-functioning adults. The study was based on six autobiographies in which the now grown and well-functioning author tells the story of their difficult childhood and teen years. The authors were vulnerable children as young which means that they grew up in an environment of addiction, mental health problems and abuse. We analysed the material by applying the salutogenic perspective, resilience and sense of coherence as theories and using Emmy Werners previous results of important resilient factors from the Kauai study as themes. The analysis was built on three main themes: attachment or a close bond to a parent/foster/surrogate parent or another important adult, to have an interest of some sort and individual personal characteristics. Previous research shows that each factor is important and that individual traits like a fighting spirit, self-control and ability to solve problems and to be able to use these traits to one owns advantage is paramount. Our conclusion was that some form of attachment/close bond to an adult is the most frequent protective factor followed by interests and personal traits. One key component to resilience is the correlation between protective factors. The result also shows that none of these factors are as important alone as they are together. The interaction between protective factors are a somewhat neglected research area which would benefit from more attention. The finding from this study would most likely be beneficial for future work with protective and interventional social work.