Barns känsla av sammanhang - En valideringsstudie av BarnKASAM i årskurserna 1-6 (ålder 7-12 år)

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this essay is to validate the standardized selfreport questionnaire Children´s Sense of Coherence (CSOC). This questionnaire is sprung from Antonovsky's salutogenic theory and aimed at measuring children's sense of coherence, which is looked upon as an ability to chose the most suitable strategies in coping with problem situations. In order to ensure the validity of this questionnaire another two questionnaires have been used measuring health related factors like self assessment and optimism/ future prospects. The empirical part of this study included a selected group of 315 children, 7-12 years of age from southern Sweden. Results show that CSOC as selfreport questionnaire in its current design was not a suitable questionnaire for children 7-9 years of age. Observation results as well as correlations between the instruments variables indicated that the children did not understand parts of the questionnaires. A simplified version more adapted to age is hence preferable. The questionnaire worked adequately in ages 10-12 years. Significant connections were found between sense of coherence (SOC), optimism/ future prospects and self assessment. The strongest connections were found between SOC, mental wellbeing and relations to others. Results from these ages support Antonovsky's hypothesis that sence of coherence may be a salutogenic factor. Differences between gender were not significant.