| dc.description.abstract | This thesis is a study about the everyday lives of Swedish parents of small children. The
empirical data comprises individual interviews, couple interviews and focus groups with 30
parents, as well as focus group interviews with 22 child health nurses in order to investigate
their perception of parent’s daily lives and need for support. The objective of the thesis is to
analyse the family practices of parents with small children, and the ways in which daily
routines are negotiated in relation to various resources, as well as to norms regarding gender,
family and parenthood. The aim of the thesis is also to investigate how the concept of social
capital can be used in order to analyse the institutional, informal and market-related resources,
as well as the values ascribed to them, to which the parents have access and of which they
make use in their daily lives. A central point of departure is that parenthood is a process of
doing, and the view of the family as a doing and negotiating activity. Theoretical concepts as
family practices, welfare regimes and gender ideologies are used to analyse the data. Social
capital is another central concept, both to describe actual resources in the form of formal and
informal social relationships, but also expectations and perceptions of the significance of
these relationships.
Information, practical assistance and emotional support are important for the social capital
in parenthood. The results reveal that places of work and colleagues contribute to the social
capital of families, since the community of colleagues is a source of informational and
emotional support in parenthood. Parents who, for various reasons, are excluded from the
labour market, have inferior access to social capital in parenthood. Parents also have varying
degree of social capital in the form of practical assistance, which is due to access to actual
recourses, but also a common moral of care. Hence, the construction of family affects the
accessibility of social capital. The parents primarily relate the concept of family to a heterosexual
nuclear family, in which biological parenthood forms the foundation. They also
express a distinct moral of caring in which biological family ties, close relationships and
longstanding transactions are described as the basis of good care. Existing norms that
surround the family practices, and the moral of care that is associated with family, make it
difficult for parents to create social capital outside the limits of the heterosexual nuclear
family. Since we live in a changing society, the resources that are perceived of as social
capital might however change. The thesis for example indicates that parents negotiate with
themselves and with actors of the market with regards to how the moral of care should be
formulated.
Social arenas for parents, such as parent groups, open pre-schools and internet forums, can
function as positive resources in the everyday lives of parents, thus contributing with social
capital, since emotional support and information can be found in these arenas. However, the
arenas are hierarchic and normative, which can lead to the exclusion of certain parents.
Furthermore, the thesis shows that parents’ access to formal support, for example via child
health centres, is affected by the construction of gender by professional actors. Mothers are
more severely scrutinized while fathers, and their relationships with their children, tend to be
made invisible. Professional actors who meet parents on a daily basis must have the courage
to question their own perceptions as well as the prevailing discussion about parent support
and family, thus opening up for new opportunities to create resources in parenthood. | sv |
