Neuropsykiatriska funktionshinder och missbruk: de professionellas syn på riskfaktorer och skyddsfaktorer ur ett utvecklingsekologiskt perspektiv

Sammanfattning: The purpose of our study is to examine what risk factors can contribute to a child/youth with neuropsychiatric disorders developing an addiction to drugs. We also wanted to find out what protective factors can contribute not to develop an addiction. In order to find out these two different aspects we interviewed twelve professionals to get their view upon the matter. The professionals work within different sectors such as school, healthcare, social services and one of the interviewed is a member of an organization that specialises in neuropsychiatric disorders. When analysing our result of the interviews we used Bronnfenbrenner´s theory on the ecology of human development. What we found was that there are significant risk factors and protective factors on different levels of the child's environment. On the first level, the microsystem, interpersonal relations have an impact on the child's development. On the second level, the mesosystem, the risk and protective factors lies within the relations between two or more microsystems, such as the child and its school or its family. The third level is represented by the exosystem that consists for example the parent's network and community projects for children. The child is not actively participating in this system but is however affected of what happens in the system. The last level is the macrosystem and refers to the society as a whole, the ideologies and the culture that the society represents. The inferences are that there is a good chance of terminating a destructive behaviour pattern often shown amongst these children/youths. However it takes good quality interventions from family and professionals and a great understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders amongst people that interact with these children and youths.