Meningen med livet : hur 15-åringar i en stor och en liten stad i Sverige ser på livskvalitet

Sammanfattning: There are many good reasons to ponder about what it is that makes life worth living. To observe and reflect on what it is that gives a person a good quality of life is arguably the essential core of social-work. The aim of this research was to investigate how 15-year old youths interpret quality of life. The key areas that we explored in order to meet the research aims were: what did the youths interpret as a good quality of life for a 15-year old and for an adult, how did they view their own quality of life, and did they think that the regional context (i.e. if one lives in a big city or in a small town) affects how one interpret quality of life. The studywas based on interviews with four boys and four girls. Half of the respondents lived in a suburb of Stockholm and the other half lived in a small country town. A qualitative method was used to interview the respondents individually. The results were analysed by using Brülde´s theories on quality of life. The results show that to a large extent the youths in both areas shared each others values – a loving and supportive family was deemed to be the most important factor for a good quality of life, followed by friendships and recreational-time for young people and job satisfaction for adults. However, the two groups differed in two ways. The suburban youths declared that they experienced a lot of school-stress which the small-town youths did not experience. Also, the Stockholm respondents identified several aspects that could make their lives better. In the contrast none of the small town respondents could identify ways to improve their lives. Explanations for these differing responses are explored in the study.