Guds lilla barnaskara - barn och ungdomar inom Jehovas vittnen

Sammanfattning: My intention was to explore the childhood of children and adolescents within the religious organization of Jehovah´s Witnesses, in Sweden. I used a technique where I interviewed three active witnesses and four former members. The former members either had left the religion freely or had been excluded by the movement. I wanted to know more from those two different perspectives, because they often seem to conflict. First of all, I wanted to learn about the persons own upbringing. Secondly, I wanted to learn more about children and adolescents within the movement in general. I wanted to explore both positive and negative aspects of belonging to a Christian organization. I also wanted to know more about their every-day-life. Finally, I wanted to know how people handled difficult relationships within their families and when the support or advice of the congregation was sought. The seven interviews have given a lot of information about both every-day-life, positive and negative aspects of growing up as a witness and how family difficulties are handled. Since children within Jehovah´s Witnesses attend regular schools, I have learnt a lot about difficulties that the interviewed people have experienced during school and in relation to non-witness children.