Widening the scope of mental health with a 'youth centred' approach: a qualitative study involving health care professionals in Sweden's youth clinics.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore how health care providers at youth clinics (YCs) in Sweden engage with, focus on, and navigate across the mental health youth space, while upholding the core bedrock principle of "youth-centeredness".

Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 21 health care professionals working in three YCs located in three different regions of Sweden. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis informed by the work of Braun and Clarke.

Exploring cross-boundary collaboration for youth mental health in Sweden - a qualitative study using the integrative framework for collaborative governance.

Background: Youth mental health is a major health concern in almost every country. Mental health accounts for about 13% of the global burden of disease in the 10-to-19-year age group. Still there are significant gaps between the mental health needs of young people and the quality and accessibility of available services.

The advancement of a gender ethics protocol to uncover gender ethical dilemmas in midwifery: a preliminary theory model.

Objectives: Ethical dilemmas at both the individual and structural level are part of the daily work of midwives and gender inequality and injustice can affect women's sexual and reproductive health. Mainstream bioethical theory has been criticized for neglecting women's issues. To ensure women's experiences are addressed, a gender lens on ethics is crucial.

A safe place - Adolescents' and young adults' perceptions of youth clinics in northern Sweden.

Background/objective: Adolescents and young adults are a diverse group with varied health needs. In Sweden, youth clinics are critical for improving their sexual, reproductive, mental, and general health. The aim of this qualitative study was to gain a deeper understanding of key conditions needed for youth friendliness, and to better understand youth-friendly health services from the perspective of adolescents and young adults in northern Sweden.

Collective imaginaries of caring landscapes for rural youth: a concept mapping study in northern Sweden.

Background: In the current study, the approach of 'utopia as method' was combined with the concept 'landscapes of care' to explore collective imaginaries of caring landscapes in relation to young people living in rural northern Sweden, while focusing specifically on what such landscapes should ideally look like, and how various strategies could help to realise the visions.

Methods: The research was conducted using a modified concept mapping methodology comprising three phases of data collection and analysis. This facilitated the integration of tacit knowledge and utopian visions of young people, professionals and policymakers living and working in various parts of northern Sweden.

How can we strengthen mental health services in Swedish youth clinics? A health policy and systems study protocol.

Introduction: Strengthening first-line mental healthcare services for youth remains a priority for the Swedish government. The government is currently investigating how different sectors involved can be strengthened, but evidence is scarce. Youth clinics play a key role in these discussions, being one of the most trusted services for youth.

Reproducing normative femininity: Women's evaluations of their birth experiences analysed by means of word frequency and thematic analysis.

Background: Given the significance of the birth experience on women's and babies' well-being, assessing and understanding maternal satisfaction is important for providing optimal care. While previous research has thoroughly reviewed women's levels of satisfaction with the childbirth experience from a multitude of different angles, there is a dearth of papers that use a gender lens in this area. The aim of this study is to explore through a gender perspective the circumstances attributed to both women's assessment of a positive birth experience and those which contribute to a lack of satisfaction with their birth experience.

"A woman's honor tumbles down on all of us in the family, but a man's honor is only his": young women's experiences of patriarchal chastity norms.

: In this qualitative study we explored how young women living in Sweden with ethnic and cultural roots in the Middle East and East Africa comply with or resist so-called honour norms and how they perceive that these norms affect their living conditions. : In depth interviews were performed with 14 young women. The majority were between 21 and 32 years of age with a mean age of 24.

Landscapes of care and despair for rural youth - a qualitative study in the northern Swedish 'periphery'.

Background: This study emerges as a response to the lack of youth perspectives when it comes to discussions about access to and experiences of health and social services in rural areas. It subsequently contributes to the literature by positioning young people at the centre of this debate, and by taking a more holistic approach to the topic than is typically the case. Specifically, based on the idea that a good life in proper health for young people may be contingent on notions of care that are bounded up in multi-layered social and spatial environments, the aim of this study was to explore what characterises 'landscapes of care' for rural youth.

Assessing the youth-friendliness of youth clinics in northern Sweden: a survey analyzing the perspective of the youth.

Background: Sweden has nearly 300 youth clinics that have been offering services since the 1970s. However, no evaluation has been done to assess their youth-friendliness. This study aims to assess: i) to what extent youth clinics are perceived as youth-friendly by the young people using them; and ii) if the level of youth friendliness is equally perceived across different sociodemographic groups of users.

Exploring the medicalisation of childbirth through women's preferences for and use of pain relief.

Background: Sweden, along with other countries, is facing rising intrapartum intervention rates.

Aim: To explore the medicalisation of childbirth through women's preferences for and use of pain relief, and to investigate whether the presence of a birth plan had any impact on use of pain relief, rate of intervention, and satisfaction with the birth experience.

Methods: The study was cross-sectional, and included 129 women with birth plans and 110 without, all of whom gave birth in one hospital in Sweden between March and June 2016.

Accessibility and factors associated with utilization of mental health services in youth health centers. A qualitative comparative analysis in northern Sweden.

Background: Youth-friendly health care services can facilitate young people's access to health care services and promote their health, including their mental health. In Sweden, a network of youth health centers exist since the 1970s, incorporated within the public health system. Even if such centers take a holistic approach to youth health, the focus has been in sexual and reproductive health care, and the extent of integrating mental health care services is less developed though it varies notably between different centers.

Autonomous and dependent-The dichotomy of birth: A feminist analysis of birth plans in Sweden.

Objective: To elicit pregnant women's perceptions of childbirth as expressed in their birth plans, and through a feminist lens analyse their wishes, fears, values, and beliefs about childbirth, as well as their expectations on partner and midwife.

Design: This study used qualitative content analysis, identifying subcategories, categories, and an overall theme in data gathered from women's written birth plans. A feminist theoretical framework underpinned the research.

Prevalence and correlates of gender inequitable norms among young, church-going women and men in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Background: Prolonged political instability may have exacerbated gender inequitable beliefs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The aim of this study was to assess attitudes related to gender-equitable norms and its determinants among young, church-going women and men in Kinshasa, DRC.

Method: Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey with 291 church-going women and 289 men aged 18-24 years old, residing in three disadvantaged communes of Kinshasa.

Health care access for rural youth on equal terms? A mixed methods study protocol in northern Sweden.

Background: The purpose of this paper is to propose a protocol for researching the impact of rural youth health service strategies on health care access. There has been no published comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of youth health strategies in rural areas, and there is no clearly articulated model of how such assessments might be conducted. The protocol described here aims to gather information to; i) Assess rural youth access to health care according to their needs, ii) Identify and understand the strategies developed in rural areas to promote youth access to health care, and iii) Propose actions for further improvement.

Factors associated with gender equality among church-going young men in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo: a cross-sectional study.

Background: While women and girls are made vulnerable by inequitable and violent versions of masculinities, there is increasing evidence that gender equality will not be achieved without partnering with men. The aim of this study was to assess gender-equitable norms and their determinants among church-going young men in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 289 church-going young men, aged 18-24 years, residing in three disadvantaged communes of Kinshasa.

"Men don't think that far" - Interviewing men in Sweden about chlamydia and HIV testing during pregnancy from a discursive masculinities construction perspective.

Objectives: We used qualitative research design to discursively explore expectant fathers' perceptions of chlamydia and HIV, and their masculinity constructions about testing, and explored how they talked about their potential resistance towards testing and their pre-test emotions.

Study Design: Twenty men were offered chlamydia and HIV testing at the beginning of their partner's pregnancy. Those who agreed to be tested were interviewed in-depth; those who declined testing were also interviewed.

Challenges and strategies for sustaining youth-friendly health services - a qualitative study from the perspective of professionals at youth clinics in northern Sweden.

Background: Youth-friendly health-care services - those that are accessible, acceptable, equitable, appropriate and effective for different youth subpopulations - are beneficial for youth health, but not easy to implement and sustain. Sweden is among the few countries where youth-friendly health-care services have been integrated within the public health system and sustained for a long time. This study explores the challenges and strategies in providing sustainable youth-friendly health-care services, from the perspective of professionals working in youth clinics in northern Sweden.

Church representatives' perspectives on masculinities in the context of HIV: the case of the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa.

Despite a growing body of literature related to church leaders challenging dominant norms of masculinities that may enable the spread of HIV, research on masculinity issues among African church representatives who are policy makers is scarce. The objectives of this study were to explore the perspectives on masculinities held by church representatives within the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA) and to identify strategies they used to transform masculinities in their respective churches. Qualitative interviews were carried out with 14 church representatives belonging to the EHAIA International Reference Group.

Searching for best practices of youth friendly services - a study protocol using qualitative comparative analysis in Sweden.

Background: Swedish youth clinics constitute one of the most comprehensive and consolidated examples of a nationwide network of health care services for young people. However, studies evaluating their 'youth-friendliness' and the combination of factors that makes them more or less 'youth-friendly' have not been conducted. This protocol will scrutinise the current youth-friendliness of youth clinics in northern Sweden and identify the best combination of conditions needed in order to implement the criteria of youth-friendliness within Swedish youth clinics and elsewhere.

Promoting women's human rights: A qualitative analysis of midwives' perceptions about virginity control and hymen 'reconstruction'.

Objectives: To explore midwives' perceptions regarding virginity control and hymen 'reconstructions', and how these practices can be debated from a gender perspective.

Methods: An international group of 266 midwives answered an open-ended question in a Web survey. The great majority came from the Western world, among them, the majority were from Europe.

Gendered discourses of youth sexualities--an exploration of PubMed articles on prevention of sexually transmissible infections.

Objective: To explore how gender is addressed in medical articles on the prevention of sexually transmissible infections (STI) among adolescents.

Methods: Sixtyone articles were retrieved from a PubMed search and scrutinized by qualitative content analysis.

Results: Most articles were affiliated with North American research institutions, but there were also reports from Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia.

Conflicting discourses of church youths on masculinity and sexuality in the context of HIV in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Masculinity studies are fairly new and young churchgoers are an under-researched group in the current Congolese church context. In response to this knowledge gap, this paper attempts to explore discourses of young churchgoers from deprived areas of Kinshasa regarding masculinity and sexuality in the era of HIV. A series of 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with unmarried young churchgoers from the Salvation Army, Protestant and Revival churches.

"Not used but almost…"--a gender and agency analysis of the grey zone between consensual and nonconsensual sexual intercourse.

Rape is a widespread but underreported problem among women. In this article I explore the complexities surrounding the fine line between consensual and nonconsensual sexual intercourse, by studying a rape through which a young woman was infected with HIV. I provide an analysis of how to understand and interpret this episode by applying a gender perspective based on patriarchy-namely, women's submissive position in heterosexual situations compared with men-and the concept of agency, that is, the individual's own decision-making ability, own choices, and different courses of action available, to outline the frame of action available to the informant.

Central gender theoretical concepts in health research: the state of the art.

Despite increasing awareness of the importance of gender perspectives in health science, there is conceptual confusion regarding the meaning and the use of central gender theoretical concepts. We argue that it is essential to clarify how central concepts are used within gender theory and how to apply them to health research. We identify six gender theoretical concepts as central and interlinked-but problematic and ambiguous in health science: sex, gender, intersectionality, embodiment, gender equity and gender equality.