"Föräldrar har aldrig varit så pålästa...men heller aldrig så osäkra"

Sammanfattning: Abstract Title: ”Parents have never been so knowledgeable…but at the same time, so doubtful” To become a parent is for the most parents a wonderful experience in life. Happy times follows by challenges that puts the parenthood on its peak. Sweden has a widely-spread parent support through the government. One way of giving parents support is through a family centre. The purpose is to give help and support to parents. Despite the widely-spread parents support, research show that the mental illness for youth are increasing within the ages of 13 and 15 years old. According to research data the increase of mental illness among youth has double in the last 30 years. The aim of this research is to examine how professionals working at the familycenters perceive how they can support families to prevent mental illness among youth. The aim is divided into two different questions where perceived shortcomings and well functional factors examines. The factors to be analyzed is to find out in which way these factors possibly can affect mental illness among youth. The method used was a qualitative interview design with professionals working at the familycentres. Three focusgroupinterviews were conducted with ten professionals working at familycentres including nurses, teachers from kindergarden and curators. The interviews were held in two provinces in southern Sweden. Data was audio-recorded and transcribed, and further subjected to qualitative content analysis. The result of the study indicates that from the categories; a parent resources perspective, availability as a resource and cooperation as a resource, affect the child at different levels through functional factors and shortcoming factors. The conclusion is that parental support is a complex theme and the identified functioning and shortcoming factors exist at different levels in society that interact and influence each other. The way they interact and influence each other becomes crucial for how the support reaches the child.