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Stress among adolescents in Western societies is becoming an issue of increasing concern of adolescent's health. The aim of this study was to gain greater knowledge about how girls and boys perceive and cope with school-related stress. Participants were 14- to 15-year-old adolescents from a medium-sized municipality in southern Sweden. The data were collected from focus group interviews. The data were subjected to qualitative content analysis. The findings show that adolescents "prioritizing the future or the present by making choices, finding their own private sphere to relax, and recovering with family and friends." There were gender differences in how these strategies were used. The findings could be used for initiating and planning health promotion interventions in school with focus on supporting girls' and boys' equal terms to cope with school-related stress in present and for the future and to give equal condition for future studies and opportunities in life.

Stress among adolescents in Western societies is becoming an issue of increasing concern, and the global trend of adolescents' health shows a gradual deterioration that is independent of national differences and increases with age. The aim of this study was to explore the main concern of adolescents and about how they cope with demands in everyday life. Participants were 14-16 years old, and data were collected from three sources. A constructivist grounded theory was used as a method for generating a model of the adolescents' description of how they cope with demands in their everyday lives. The main concern described by participants in this study was to strive to be successful and to succeed in the present and throughout their lives. We conclude that differences between girls and boys, in terms of coping with demands in their everyday lives, are important to consider in the development of health promotion initiatives targeted at adolescents.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe Child Health Service (CHS) nurses’ experiences with conducting individual parental conversations (IPCs) with non-birthing parents. Background: CHS nurses in Sweden mainly focus on monitoring a child’s physical and mental development and the mothers’ health in order to support their parenthood. The assignment of the CHS includes identifying dysfunctional social relationships in a family and strengthening responsive parenting. An imbalance arises within the family when someone in the family suffers from illness, which could have a negative effect on the whole family’s health and well-being. Methods: An inductive, descriptive qualitative study design was used to describe and to gain an understanding of the CHS nurses’ experiences. Data were collected in 13 interviews, and a qualitative content analysis was performed. Findings: The analysis of interviews with CHS nurses resulted in two main categories, each with three subcategories. The main categories are: working for equality and applying a family focus, and dealing with challenges in the developing assignment. The IPCs stimulate the CHS nurses to work for more equality and to apply a family focus, which can be a way of strengthening the families’ health and the children’s upbringing. Developing the CHS nurses’ assignment can be a challenge that appears to entail positive outcomes for CHS nurses, while also generating the need for CHS nurses to receive supervision to find ways to improve their approach and practice.

This study aims to understand the role that optimism could play in the context of a health asset approach to promote adolescent health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Adolescents (n = 948), between 11 and 16 years old from a medium-sized rural town in Sweden, answered questionnaires measuring optimism, pessimism, and HRQOL. The findings indicate a significant decrease in optimism and a significant increase in pessimism between early and midadolescence. The study has allowed us to present associational evidence of the links between optimism and HRQOL. This infers the potential of an optimistic orientation about the future to function as a health asset during adolescence and by implication may provide additional intervention tool in the planning of health promotion strategies.