Det blir svårt när en tredje person är inblandad : En kvalitativ studie om socialsekreterares erfarenheter av att samtala med barn genom tolk

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to investigate social workers’ experience of communicating with children using an interpreter and analysing the challenges. We conducted qualitative interviews with the focus groups of social workers in a city in the southern part of Sweden. They all served at the social services in the municipality. Totally, four focus group interviews were conducted with four participants in each one of them. In order to analyse our empirical material, we have applied three communication models from a communication theoretical perspective. These are the barrier model, the transmitter and receiver model, the filter and noise model. We have also used the notion of culture, which is a part of the conception of the communication theory. The chal¬lenges and obstacles highlighted by the social workers were that there was no direct contact with the children when an interpreter was present in the con¬versation. Due to this, it was more dif¬ficult for the social workers to create a relationship with the children. The -interviewees also stressed that there was an uncertainty regarding the inter¬preter’s translation. They all agreed that the interpreter should make a literal translation, but they were all aware of the difficulties in this kind of translation. The study also indicated that the interpreter’s cul¬tural background, gender and age had a significant role in the childrens’ own oral stories du¬ring the conversa¬tions, which can make it more difficult for the social workers – according to themselves – in gathering information of importance. The challenges and obstacles could be understood from the mo¬dels of commu¬nication theory and cultural concepts.