Swedish Students Research Articles

Global citizenship as taken-for-grantedness: reflecting on Swedish students’ trip to Tanzania

ABSTRACT Swedish students regularly take part in school partnership trips to Tanzania. Yet, little research looks at the extent to which these trips support global learning. This paper is interested in the discourses that enable and constrain ethical relationality in these educative encounters. It considers existing research on global citizenship education and school partnerships in relation to decolonial engagements then analyses interview data with four students who participated in an entrepreneurship themed trip to identify discourses available to them. Students articulated an overarching discourse of taken-for-grantedness. Several sub-discourses could enable but tend to constrain an ethical relationality in these educative encounters.

Mind the gap! Gender differences in alcohol consumption among Swedish ninth graders 1989-2021.

To examine gender differences in drinking habits among Swedish ninth graders over the period 1989-2021. Annual school surveys with nationally representative samples of ninth-grade students in Sweden covering the period 1989-2021, total sample of 180,538 students. Drinking habits were measured with self-reports of frequency and quantity of use and frequency of heavy episodic drinking. Differences between genders were compared annually and differences were tested using logistic and ordinary least square regression models with cluster robust standard errors. Small gender differences in the prevalence of alcohol use during the first part of the study period were followed by an increasing gap over the past decade with girls being more likely to drink alcohol than boys. Boys consumed larger amounts of alcohol than girls during the first three decades of the studied period but no gender differences were found in later years. Binge drinking was more prevalent among boys during 1989 to 2000 but no systematic gender difference was found during the past 15 years. There used to be clear gender differences in drinking habits among ninth graders in Sweden with boys drinking more than girls. This gap has narrowed over the past three decades and among contemporary adolescents, no gender differences are found neither in binge drinking nor volume of drinking and the prevalence of drinking is even higher among girls.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a brief digital procrastination intervention targeting university students in Sweden: study protocol for the Focus randomised controlled trial

IntroductionThe concept of procrastination can be described as a conscious, yet irrational, postponement of important tasks or decisions—despite awareness that the delay may lead to negative consequences. Procrastination behaviours are...

Students at a crossroad: A cross-sectional survey gauging the impact of COVID-19 on medical and biomedical graduates in the United States and Sweden.

Graduate programs in medicine and biomedical sciences have been severely impacted by the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic over the last 2 years. Following 2 years since beginning of the pandemic, data on student support, educational and academic performance as well as sentiment on changes to educational programs are starting to emerge. We performed and compared results of two cross-sectional surveys of Swedish and U.S.-based medical and biomedical graduate students on how the pandemic has affected their studies, research productivity and career trajectory. Students were also asked to assess support provided by the university and supervisors. The surveys also captured student demographics and a range of other factors, such as pressures brought on by caretaking and financial responsibilities. We analyzed answers from 264 and 106 students attending graduate programs in universities in Sweden and the United States, respectively. U.S.-based students faced more severe restrictions on their research program compared to students in Sweden, reporting more delays in productivity, scientific output and graduation, and increased worries about their career trajectory. Swedish students had more caretaking responsibilities, although these did not cause any delays in graduation. While support by universities and supervisors was comparable between the countries, financial worries and mental health concerns were particularly prominent in the U.S. cohort. Student performance and outlook was hugely dependent on the breadth of the restrictions and the available support. Besides the governmental and university-led approach to counter the pandemic, societal differences also played a role in how well students were handling effects of the pandemic.

Mental health and exercise habits among police students in Sweden: A three-year retrospective study

This study aims to explore police students’ self-rated mental health and physical activity levels and the relationship between them. Based on longitudinal and cross-sectional data ( N = 722), two scales on mental health orientation were developed. The scales and levels of physical activity were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, and X 2. During police education, (1) the level of physical activity decreases for men, (2) there is a decline in positive health orientation for both sexes, and (3) women report a more negative health orientation. This raises questions regarding whether “enough” is done to provide police students with sufficient conditions for improving their health.

Grammatical gender assignment in L3 versus L4 Swedish: a pseudo-longitudinal study

Abstract Previous research has documented cross-linguistic influence in L2 grammatical gender acquisition and use. However, it remains unclear what role previously learned languages play in gender assignment beyond L2. To address this question, we created a timed gender decision task with which we tested two groups of L1 Polish university students of Swedish as an additional language: 65 L2 English/L3 Swedish students, and 52 L2 English/L3 German/L4 Swedish students. Adopting a pseudo-longitudinal design, we tested individuals who had completed one, two, or three to four years of studies. Accuracy and response time data were submitted to Generalised Linear Models. The results show that L4 Swedish students did not outperform L3 Swedish students in terms of accuracy. However, L4 Swedish students assigned gender to nouns faster than L3 Swedish students, but only after one year of studies. The response time advantage of L4S students was attributed to the surface transfer of the German gender values into Swedish. Apart from the specific effect of German, the results point to the robust effects of gender congruency with L1 Polish and the persistent tendency to overgeneralise uter gender.

Ultra-Processed Food vs. Fruit and Vegetable Consumption before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Greek and Swedish Students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted children's lifestyles, including dietary behaviors. Of particular concern among these behaviors is the heightened prevalence of ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, which has been linked to the development of obesity and related non-communicable diseases. The present study examines the changes in (1) UPF and (2) vegetable and/or fruit consumption among school-aged children in Greece and Sweden before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analyzed dataset consisted of main meal pictures (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) captured by 226 Greek students (94 before the pandemic and 132 during the pandemic) and 421 Swedish students (293 before and 128 during the pandemic), aged 9-18, who voluntarily reported their meals using a mobile application. The meal pictures were collected over four-month periods over two consecutive years; namely, between the 20th of August and the 20th of December in 2019 (before the COVID-19 outbreak) and the same period in 2020 (during the COVID-19 outbreak). The collected pictures were annotated manually by a trained nutritionist. A chi-square test was performed to evaluate the differences in proportions before versus during the pandemic. In total, 10,770 pictures were collected, including 6474 pictures from before the pandemic and 4296 pictures collected during the pandemic. Out of those, 86 pictures were excluded due to poor image quality, and 10,684 pictures were included in the final analyses (4267 pictures from Greece and 6417 pictures from Sweden). The proportion of UPF significantly decreased during vs. before the pandemic in both populations (50% vs. 46%, p = 0.010 in Greece, and 71% vs. 66%, p < 0.001 in Sweden), while the proportion of vegetables and/or fruits significantly increased in both cases (28% vs. 35%, p < 0.001 in Greece, and 38% vs. 42%, p = 0.019 in Sweden). There was a proportional increase in meal pictures containing UPF among boys in both countries. In Greece, both genders showed an increase in vegetables and/or fruits, whereas, in Sweden, the increase in fruit and/or vegetable consumption was solely observed among boys. The proportion of UPF in the Greek and Swedish students' main meals decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic vs. before the pandemic, while the proportion of main meals with vegetables and/or fruits increased.

From deadpan machine to relating socially: Middle school students’ experiences speaking English with embodied conversational agents

Speaking with an artificial counterpart in simulated environments has been shown beneficial for foreign language learning. Still, few studies have explored how it is experienced by younger students. We report on a study of Swedish students (N = 22) speaking English with embodied conversational agents (ECAs) in everyday-life scenarios. Data were collected on students’ rankings, choices, and open-response items in logbooks and questionnaires. Self-reported data on experiences were analyzed through three dimensions: cognitive, emotional, and social. Findings show that students were generally satisfied with the activity and emotionally engaged with large individual differences within the social dimension. We unpack aspects regarding social relating to the ECA, analyzing the space between experiencing the ECA as a socially distant “deadpan machine” to humanizing and relating socially.

Nonconsensual Dissemination of Sexual Images Among Adolescents: Associations With Depression and Self-Esteem.

The nonconsensual dissemination of sexual images is a form of image-based sexual abuse that is relatively common among adolescents. However, literature on this issue with adolescent samples is relatively scarce. Therefore, this study is aimed at investigating how this phenomenon varies based on gender and sexual orientation, along with its association with depression and self-esteem. Participants were 728 secondary school students in Sweden (50.4% girls and 46.4% boys; 14.4% lesbian, gay, bisexual [LGB+]) aged from 12 to 19 years (M = 14.35, SD = 1.29). A survey was administered during school hours, including a measure assessing the nonconsensual dissemination of sexual images, the short version of the Moods and Feelings Questionnaire, and the Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale. Results showed that LGB+ participants were more likely to indicate that they were victimized compared to their heterosexual peers, while no differences were observed for gender. Being the target of nonconsensual dissemination of sexual images was positively associated with depression, whereas no significant associations were yielded for self-esteem. Based on the findings from this study, we suggest raising adolescent awareness in relation to the nonconsensual dissemination of sexual images as a form of sexual abuse that can have detrimental effects on those who are targeted. Such educational programs should be inclusive of sexual minority adolescents, as they are at a particular risk of being the target of nonconsensual dissemination of sexual images. Psychological support should be provided to the targets of this form of abuse, through both school and online counseling. Future research should adopt longitudinal designs while recruiting diverse samples.

Moral disengagement and bullying: Sex and age trends among Swedish students

Despite the fact that bullying has been consistently linked to moral disengagement among schoolchildren, research that distinguishes among the four loci of moral disengagement (cognitive restructuring, minimizing one’s agentive role, distorting consequences, and victim attribution) to better understand bullying is scarce. The aim of this longitudinal study, conducted in Sweden, was to explore in both female and male students whether the four loci of moral disengagement are concurrently associated with bullying when students are around age 12 and then again around age 14, and whether the four loci of moral disengagement in age 12 predict bullying at age 14. The current paper is based on data from 1,053 students who completed a questionnaire both in sixth and then, two years later, in eighth grade to collect self-reported data on moral disengagement, traditional school bullying perpetration, sex and age. According to the findings, concurrent associations between moral disengagement loci and bullying vary across age and sex, but cognitive restructuring was consistently related to bullying in all conditions. Cognitive restructuring was the only moral disengagement locus from grade six that significantly predicted bullying in grade eight, but not when controlling for bullying in grade six. The results indicate the need to individualize intervention actions to address moral disengagement in terms of sex and age.

Students' performance of and perspective on an objective structured practical examination for the assessment of preclinical and practical skills in biomedical laboratory science students in Sweden: a 5-year longitudinal study.

It aims to find students' performance of and perspectives on an objective structured practical examination (OSPE) for assessment of laboratory and preclinical skills in biomedical laboratory science (BLS). It also aims to investigate the perception, acceptability, and usefulness of OSPE from the students' and examiners' point of view. This was a longitudinal study to implement an OSPE in BLS. The student group consisted of 198 BLS students enrolled in semester 4, 2015-2019 at Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Sweden. Fourteen teachers evaluated the performance by completing a checklist and global rating scales. A student survey questionnaire was administered to the participants to evaluate the student perspective. To assess quality, 4 independent observers were included to monitor the examiners. Almost 50% of the students passed the initial OSPE. During the repeat OSPE, 73% of the students passed the OSPE. There was a statistically significant difference between the first and the second repeat OSPE (P<0.01) but not between the first and the third attempt (P=0.09). The student survey questionnaire was completed by 99 of the 198 students (50%) and only 63 students responded to the free-text questions (32%). According to these some stations were perceived as more difficult, albeit they considered the assessment to be valid. The observers found the assessment protocols and examiner's instructions assured the objectivity of the examination. The introduction of an OSPE in the education of biomedical laboratory scientists was a reliable, and useful examination of practical skills.

Trends in Tobacco Use among 9th Graders in Sweden, 1991–2020

Tobacco use was measured with self-reports of lifetime use of cigarettes and snus to examine trends in tobacco use among Swedish 9th graders over the period 1991-2020. Annual school surveys with nationally representative samples of 9th-grade students in Sweden covering the period 1991-2020 with a total sample of 163,617 students. We distinguished between the use of cigarettes only, use of snus only, dual use (use of both cigarettes and snus), and total tobacco use (use of any of these tobacco products). In addition to a graphical description of trends in the various measures of tobacco use, the correlation between these trends was calculated with the Pearson correlation coefficient (Rxy). The prevalence of total tobacco use declined from 72% in 1991 to 36% in 2020. The declining trend in total tobacco use was positively correlated with the trend in dual use (Rxy = 0.98) and the trend in cigarette use only (Rxy = 0.87). The trend in total tobacco use was, on the other hand, negatively correlated with snus use only (Rxy = -0.41), and snus use only was negatively correlated with cigarette use only (Rxy = -0.71). The situation became different after 2017 when total tobacco use increased as a result of an increasing prevalence of snus use. The sharp decline in tobacco use among 9th graders in Sweden over the past three decades is driven by declining cigarette use. The correlations between the various forms of tobacco use suggest that snus use may have contributed to the decline in cigarette use and, by that, overall tobacco use. The situation changed after 2017 when a sharp rise in snus use seems to have increased total tobacco use among adolescents in Sweden. A possible explanation behind this development is the introduction of a new form of snus called "All white snus", which was introduced in Sweden in 2014.

Academic performance, performance culture, and mental health: an exploration of non-linear relationships using Swedish PISA data

ABSTRACT Higher academic performance is almost universally considered a good thing, and most quantitative studies show that performance is positively, although weakly, related to mental health. Simultaneously, however, qualitative studies consistently find that high-performing students and students attending high-performing schools report high levels of stress and other mental health problems. This study investigates a simple explanation for this puzzle – that the relationship between performance and mental health is not linear and is conditional on the performance culture of the school. Data on almost 5000 Swedish students from the Programme for International Student Assessment were used. The results show that the relationship between performance and mental health is generally not linear and that intermediate-performing boys have the best mental health, while both low- and high-performing girls and boys alike have poorer mental health. Although inconclusive, the results also suggest that low-performing students may be vulnerable to a strong school performance culture.

On the fringes of metaphor: Using ambiguously figurative vague language to pragmatically negotiate sensitive topics in the English as a Medium of Instruction classroom

When negotiating sensitive and taboo topics language needs to be used carefully so as not to cause offence or disrupt the interlocutors' relationship. One way to do this is through the use of vague language. In this study, we provide an in-depth, qualitative analysis of vague, euphemistic language, which may be perceived as marginally ‘figurative’, that is used to negotiate taboo and sensitive topics concerning culture, immigration, race and class. We use the term figurative to include metaphor and metonymy. The paper's focus is on linguistic strategies that employ content words which are in turn, ambiguously figurative, vague and de-emphasising, as well as emphatic qualifiers, and hedging signals, that distance the speaker from their words or prepare the listener for figurative language to come, as tuning devices. The data used in the study are from the METCLIL (Alejo-Gonzalez et al., 2021) corpus and comprise two classes of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) students in Sweden studying international marketing in a post-graduate program. After a detailed discourse analysis, we show how L2 users exploit the vagueness inherent in ambiguously figurative language (i.e. language that we perceive to be “on the fringes of metaphor”) to discuss complex topics in a pragmatically sensitive manner in ways that expand previously established categories for VL and collapse others.

Interculturalism, ethnicity, and multilingualism in upper secondary school: an analysis of social pedagogical identities during pedagogical work with newly arrived students in Sweden

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study is to attain new knowledge about interculturalism, ethnicity, and multilingualism in the upper secondary school context in conjunction with pedagogical work with students who are newly arrived in the country. The empirical material for the study was collected in the upper secondary context in Sweden and consists of documents, field notes, and qualitative interview. Analysis shows that a distance relationship is created and recreated in the interactive flow between the newly arrived students and the teachers' institution when ethnic social pedagogical monitoring and control are represented in writing by the institution (the upper secondary school) and verbally in the observed and recounted situations. Social pedagogical identities are produced and reproduced in the interactive dynamic, in which the newly arrived student is represented as a successful student, developing in the social pedagogical meaning. However, the newly arrived student also is represented as a humiliated, weary, excluded student who, through demonstration of moral dissolution, displays an ethnified victim student identity that is in opposition to the teachers and institution. This represented humiliation, weariness, and exclusion of the newly arrived student constructs and reconstructs the image of a disadvantaged student. The effect is likely a negative impact on the aims of the upper secondary school to include and integrate newly arrived students into the school community and society at large.

Worry and Psychosomatic Problems Among Adolescents in Sweden in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Unequal Patterns Among Sociodemographic Groups?

PurposeTo analyze potential associations between sociodemographic factors and adolescents' worry about family finances and other types of worries during the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential associations between different worry themes and psychosomatic problems. MethodsFrom December 2020 to March 2021, 3,068 16–17 years old students in Sweden completed a questionnaire about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their schooling and everyday life. From April to June 2020, 70% of these students also responded to questions about their psychosomatic health. Logistic regression was applied to analyze the associations between sociodemographic factors and different worry themes and estimate the association between worry and psychosomatic problems. ResultsAcross all 13 worry themes, girls reported worry to a higher degree than boys. In most of the cases, adolescents with a lower parental educational background or immigrant background reported more frequent worrying. This was most evident for worry about family finances. The differences between adolescents with a Swedish background and those with a foreign background were large except for worry about climate change. All worry themes were associated with the students' psychosomatic health. Those who often or always experienced worry were more likely to report psychosomatic problems. Worry about family finances showed the highest odds ratio and marginal effect. DiscussionWorry about family finances during the COVID-19 pandemic turns out to be a strong and socially structured stressor that may widen the health inequalities among young people. This underlines the need for preventive and promoting measures aimed at supporting socioeconomic disadvantaged groups.

Scandinavian experiments in democratic education

This article is the first of four articles exploring democratic schools co-founded by teenage students in Norway and Sweden. Our larger project explores the relationship between democracy in education and educational dialogism. Both democracy in education and educational dialogism are partially rooted in the idea that education should be a personal meaning-making practice where the participants can create and organize their lives in ways that make sense to them and explore their interests, values, and desires. We describe the processes of founding two schools – one in Oslo, Norway, and the other in Gothenburg, Sweden – in which students practiced the right to democratic governance. We describe the process of the founding of these schools against the background of the students’ movements in the late 1960s and the 1970s and the social and political conditions in Norway and Sweden at that time. We explore the students’ perspectives on the possibility, desirability, and legitimacy of the students’ voices in ethical-ontological dialogues in which the participants jointly examine their relationships with the world, with others, and with themselves. Further, we explore the forms of democratic school governance that Norwegian and Swedish students created and identified tensions that appeared between the legitimacy of individual students’ rights to ownership of their learning, teachers’ ownership of teaching, and the conventional normative educational policies in Norway and Sweden.

The Political Reputation of Students in Upper Secondary School: Consequences for Their Collective Political Activities Four Years Later

This longitudinal study examines the role that students' political reputation in class plays in their future political activities offline together with other people. When aged 16, students were asked to nominate the classmates they considered politically knowledgeable and verbal in class, that is, as having a political reputation. This measure of political reputation was used to predict the participants' political activities offline four years later at age 20 and their attempts to take a stand in public in the national election the same year. The study controlled for individual differences in political interest, self‐perceived political impact in class, the students' political activities at age 16, and also gender and immigrant status. About 300 Swedish students were followed up four years later. Political reputation in class positively predicted future political activities offline, membership of political organizations, and attempts to take a stand in public for a party in the forthcoming national election. At the same time, the role played by political reputation depended upon students' other characteristics, especially their levels of anger and popularity, as observed by classmates. Evidently, the group dynamics in class that give some students a political reputation have long‐term consequences for their future political activities.

Swedish students’ everyday school life and teachers’ assessment dilemmas: peer strategies for ameliorating schoolwork for assessment

In contemporary ways of thinking about education there is an enhanced focus on individual students’ results and less on students’ collaborative processes for attaining good results. This may appear peculiar, given that the Swedish curriculum for the nine-year compulsory school states that students should be given opportunities to compose texts together with others and give and receive feedback on them. This is also in line with societal desires to motivate students to take responsibility for their lifelong learning. The evolving ethnographic research design, comprising observations, audio-visual recordings and follow-up interviews with students at a Swedish lower secondary school (Years 8 and 9), investigated the informal social strategies that students enacted when doing formal schoolwork and how they reflected on them. Goffman’s (1959/1990) dramaturgical metaphors of the back region, front region and impression management were applied as theoretical points of departure. The findings showed that some students worked hard at their schoolwork in ways that corresponded with societal desires and ideal learning curves. Other students aimed at more effortless achievements and relied heavily on peers and digital devices when taking shortcuts to produce formal assignments. These students’ potential learning curves showed a broken arrow of knowledge development, resulting in assessment dilemmas for teachers and possible mismatches in their grading.

Associations Between Procrastination and Subsequent Health Outcomes Among University Students in Sweden

Procrastination is prevalent among university students and is hypothesized to lead to adverse health outcomes. Previous cross-sectional research suggests that procrastination is associated with mental and physical health outcomes, but longitudinal evidence is currently scarce. To evaluate the association between procrastination and subsequent health outcomes among university students in Sweden. This cohort study was based on the Sustainable University Life study, conducted between August 19, 2019, and December 15, 2021, in which university students recruited from 8 universities in the greater Stockholm area and Örebro were followed up at 5 time points over 1 year. The present study used data on 3525 students from 3 time points to assess whether procrastination was associated with worse health outcomes 9 months later. Self-reported procrastination, measured using 5 items from the Swedish version of the Pure Procrastination Scale rated on a Likert scale from 1 ("very rarely or does not represent me") to 5 ("very often or always represents me") and summed to give a total procrastination score ranging from 5 to 25. Sixteen self-reported health outcomes were assessed at the 9-month follow-up. These included mental health problems (symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress), disabling pain (neck and/or upper back, lower back, upper extremities, and lower extremities), unhealthy lifestyle behaviors (poor sleep quality, physical inactivity, tobacco use, cannabis use, alcohol use, and breakfast skipping), psychosocial health factors (loneliness and economic difficulties), and general health. The study included 3525 participants (2229 women [63%]; mean [SD] age, 24.8 [6.2] years), with a follow-up rate of 73% (n = 2587) 9 months later. The mean (SD) procrastination score at baseline was 12.9 (5.4). An increase of 1 SD in procrastination was associated with higher mean symptom levels of depression (β, 0.13; 95% CI, 0.09-0.17), anxiety (β, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.04-0.12), and stress (β, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.08-0.15), and having disabling pain in the upper extremities (risk ratio [RR], 1.27; 95% CI, 1.14-1.42), poor sleep quality (RR, 1.09, 95% CI, 1.05-1.14), physical inactivity (RR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.04-1.11), loneliness (RR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02-1.12), and economic difficulties (RR, 1.15, 95% CI, 1.02-1.30) at the 9-month follow-up, after controlling for a large set of potential confounders. This cohort study of Swedish university students suggests that procrastination is associated with subsequent mental health problems, disabling pain, unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, and worse psychosocial health factors. Considering that procrastination is prevalent among university students, these findings may be of importance to enhance the understanding of students' health.