Vad det jag önskar kallas : En studie om Existentiella hälsosamtal i skolan, känslor och om att försöka sätta ord på det bortom språket.

Sammanfattning: The aim of the study is to investigate students' self-rated health in relation to existential aspects. With a salutogenic approach, the study builds on theories of existential health, attachment-theory, object relation theory and alexithymia. The study examines how the health promotion Existential health conversations affected the students self-rated health, school as a supporting arena as well as the self-rated ability of the youth to identify and verbalize existential feelings. The focus interviews have also been analysed using the World Health Organization [WHO] instrument for measuring health-related quality of life [HRQL] related to spiritual, religious and personal beliefs [SRPB]. To be able to identify the young people's self-rated ability to identify and verbalise existential feelings, the study has chosen to operationalise the theory of alexithymia, primarily inspired by the "Toronto Alexithymia Scale" [TAS20]. The study is a mixed-methods study based on 94 questionnaires and 6 focus interviews with the students and school health team who participated in Existential health conversations. The material for the self-rated health questionnaire is presented comparatively and the focus interviews are used to nuance that result. The approach “cognition, affection and action” was used for both research issues and serves as the theoretical bridge for the research questions in the study's abductive phase. The study found that a large group of students experienced Existential health conversations to be strengthening, and there was a large group of youth that experienced self-rated lack of ability of the youth to identify and verbalise existential feelings. The conclusion of the study states that schools must continue to work on putting this aspect of health in focus with the concept of existential health.