Monica Strømland

• Heimburg, Dina von; Friesinger, Jan Georg; Prilleltensky, Isaac; Ness, Ottar; Strømland, Monica & Vederhus, John-Kåre (2026). The Relational and Structural Dimensions of Wellbeing: A Population-Based Latent Model of Social Conditions, Mattering, Perceived Discrimination, and Quality of Life. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology. ISSN 1052-9284. 36(6). doi: 10.1002/casp.70339. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Mattering, the experience of feeling valued and able to contribute, is a recognised determinant of wellbeing. Perceived discrimination (PD), or unfair treatment, is socially patterned and may communicate devaluation. Anti-mattering, the subjective experience of insignificance and disregard, serves as a theoretical lens on PD, not a measured construct. Population-level studies rarely examine mattering and PD together, their socio-demographic patterning or associations with quality of life (QoL). In the 2024 Norwegian Quality of Life Survey (N = 16,396), mattering, PD, and QoL were modelled as latent constructs in a structural equation model estimating direct and indirect associations with socio-demographic predictors. Sociodemographic factors explained 11% of the variance in mattering and 31% in PD, with the largest contributions to PD observed among younger adults and those with financial difficulties, health limitations, or immigrant backgrounds. Mattering was positively associated with QoL (β = 0.55, βstd = 0.59) and PD negatively (β = −0.81, βstd = −0.29), both p < 0.001; the model explained 61% of QoL variance. The difference in explained variance suggests that PD was more strongly patterned by the socio-demographic factors included in the model than mattering. Welfare policy and practice therefore need to address mattering and discrimination relationally and structurally.

• Hørte, Cathrine; Vederhus, John-Kåre; Strømland, Monica; Haugland, Siri Håvås; Birkeland, Bente & Abildsnes, Eirik (2026). Adult support and its role in the association between childhood adversity and quality of life in a population-based study. Discover Public Health. 23(1). doi: 10.1186/s12982-026-02634-2. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Abstract Background Childhood adversities can have long-term impacts on quality of life (QoL), health, and well-being. We surveyed an adult population to assess the prevalence of three common adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): parental alcohol problems, parental mental illness, and violence from caregivers, as well as the overlap between them. We additionally examined the prevalence of adult support across ACE exposure and how this support related to perceived childhood difficulties and adult QoL. Methods This cross-sectional study used retrospective data from the Norwegian Counties Public Health Survey in Agder 2023. Data were summarized descriptively, and a Venn diagram illustrated the overlap between ACEs. We examined associations between cumulative exposure and the presence or lack of adult support and how these factors related to perceptions of childhood difficulties and adult QoL using one-way analysis of variance. Results The most prevalent ACEs were parental mental illness and parental alcohol problems (16% and 14%, respectively), while ~ 10% reported violence from a caregiver. We observed substantial overlap amongst the three ACE categories, with 2.4% having experienced all three. Adult support was inversely associated with higher levels of ACE exposure, and analysis showed a pattern of increasing perceived childhood difficulties and decreasing QoL scores. Adult support was consistently associated with the perception of a less difficult childhood and higher QoL, among subjects with the same level of ACE exposure. Conclusions Our findings emphasize the importance of adult support within the context of ACEs, and the need for enhanced measures aimed at supporting those most affected.

• Strømland, Monica; Larsen, Inger Beate; Fredwall, Terje Emil & Topor, Alain Pierre (2026). Non-Recovery Stories: Relational and Structural Constraints on Recovery. Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Mental Health. ISSN 2198-9834. s. 1–16. doi: 10.1007/s40737-026-00540-z. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Abstract: Recovery research has mainly focused on optimistic, progress oriented narratives, yet such accounts often overlook experiences in which recovery is hindered rather than supported. This study examines non‑recovery stories as told by people with lived experience of recovery from mental health challenges and/or substance use in Norway. The aim was to explore how participants describe situations hindering recovery, and to develop knowledge about barriers embedded in everyday service encounters and wider welfare arrangements. The article draws on qualitative data collected in 2019 through focus groups, paired and individual interviews with a total of 29 participants. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted. For the purposes of this paper, we selectively analysed interview segments in which participants described non‑recovery situations. Three overarching themes were developed. The first captures how medication was frequently prioritised over listening, dialogue and relational continuity. The second theme concerns encounters with professionals characterised as distant, unavailable or procedural, “like talking to a wall”, which participants experienced as invalidating and as barriers to trust, recognition and engagement. The third theme highlights how rigid welfare structures, bureaucratic demands, unstable housing and economic precarity shaped everyday life conditions, producing cycles of discontinuity, insecurity and abandonment that undermined recovery. The findings show that recovery is shaped as much by social, organisational and material environments as by individual capacities or clinical interventions. Attending to non‑recovery stories broadens understandings of recovery and underscores the need for service models that address the relational and structural conditions within which recovery is expected to unfold.

• Strømland, Monica; Bahus, Marianne & Andersen, Anders Johan Wickstrøm (2023). “What’s the Purpose of Having a Say If I Cannot Participate?” A Qualitative Study of Young People’s Experiences of Being Heard and to Participate in Decision-Making Processes in Norwegian Child Welfare Services. The International Journal of Children's Rights. ISSN 0927-5568. 31(3), s. 729–755. doi: 10.1163/15718182-31030007. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The aim of this study was qualitatively to describe, explore and reflect upon young people’s experiences of being heard and to participate in decision-making processes made in their best interests when in contact with child welfare services (cws) in Norway. Despite children’s right to be heard according to national and international legislation, three out of nine interviewees expressed an overall experience of this when in contact with professionals. Positive experiences of being heard and experienced opportunities of participation formed a basis for personal well-being and trustful relations, whereas negative experiences were associated with mistrust and discontent. We analysed the interviews in light of child participation theory and the Capability Approach, using thematical content analysis. Based on our findings we suggest the Capability Approach in combination with theory of participation to operationalise children’s right to be heard.

• Strømland, Monica; Bahus, Marianne & Andersen, Anders Johan W. (2022). Too Vulnerable to Participate? A Systematic Literature Review of the Gap between a Right to Participate and Participation, in Welfare Services. Journal of Human Rights Practice. ISSN 1757-9619. 14(1), s. 331–351. doi: 10.1093/jhuman/huab061. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Larsen, Inger Beate; Friesinger, Jan Georg; Strømland, Monica & Topor, Alain Pierre (2021). You realise you are better when you want to live, want to go out, want to see people: Recovery as assemblage. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. ISSN 0020-7640. s. 1–8. doi: 10.1177/00207640211019452. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Background: The lack of social and material perspectives in descriptions of recovery processes is almost common in recovery research. Aim: Consequently, we investigated recovery stories and how people with mental health and/or addiction challenges included social and material aspects in these stories. Method: We conducted focus group and individual interviews. We investigated how the participants narrated their stories and how they assembled places and people in their recovery stories. Results: We found that narratives of recovery became assemblages where humans and their environments co-exist and are interdependent. Conclusion: As such, narratives about recovery are about everyday assemblages of well-being into which stories of insecurity are interwoven, without a start or stop point.

• Strømland, Monica; Andersen, Anders Johan W.; Johansen, Venke Frederike & Bahus, Marianne (2019). In Your Best Interest. A Discussion of How Capability Approach Could be Used as a Guideline to Strengthen and Supplement the Principle of the Child’s Best Interests. The International Journal of Children's Rights. ISSN 0927-5568. 27(3), s. 517–544. doi: 10.1163/15718182-02703009. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

Se alle arbeider i NVA

• Strømland, Monica (2026). Barnets-beste vurderinger i barnehagen etter barnehageloven § 37. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Strømland, Monica (2026). Award ceremony – The Award for the Promotion of Freedom of Expression in Mental Health Care. Hosted by Monica Strømland. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Utdeling av Prisen til fremme av ytringsfriheten i psykisk helsevern i Norge

• Strømland, Monica (2025). Prisutdeling - Utdeling av pris til fremme av ytringsfriheten i psykisk helsevern. doi: https:/www.madinnorway.org/2025/12/se-utdelingen-av-ytringsfrihetspris-til-nikoline-riis-lindahl/. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Lindvig, Gunnhild Ruud; Kogstad, Ragnfrid Eline; Strømland, Monica; Larsen, Inger Beate; Topor, Alain Pierre & Bøe, Tore Dag [Vis alle 19 forfattere av denne artikkelen] (2022). Regjeringens utdaterte forståelse av psykisk helse. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Friesinger, Jan Georg; Strømland, Monica & Larsen, Inger Beate (2019). Gammel ide i ny innpakning? Agderposten. ISSN 0805-3723. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Strømland, Monica (2019). Barnets beste i lys av etisk teori. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Strømland, Monica (2019). Barns rettigheter - gjør vi nok? [TV]. TV Agder. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Strømland, Monica (2019). Har alle barn i Norge samme muligheter? Om barnekonvensjonen og barns rettigheter. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Strømland, Monica (2018). Digniyt in the name of Justice. Can dignity be protected within the frames of democracy? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Strømland, Monica (2018). "Erfaringer med mobbing. Hvordan kan vi bruke smertefulle erfaringer med mobbing til å gjøre en bedre jobb og sikre alle barn og unge retten til læring i et trygt og godt skolemiljø?". Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Strømland, Monica (2024). In your best interest : A study of how children have experienced being heard in child welfare services and how the Capability Approach could strengthen the understanding of the child’s best interests. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 9788284271859. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Over the last couple of years, the Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWS) has been subject to considerable criticism, both domestic and international. Norway has been accused of “stealing” children from their parents with the intent of forming children’s upbringing in a way the state finds appropriate, with little respect for cultural and/or individual differences related to parental practice. The essential question has been and is how Norway might secure the right and the principle of the child’s best interests, at the same time respecting parents’ rights to respect for private and family life, also understood as the biological principle. Norway has been convicted by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in over 20 cases related to CWS from 1996 to February 2024 – all except two cases in the last five years. Norway has received particular criticism for its scarce resort to individual adaptation for contact between child and parents in several cases in which CWS has decided on a care order. Aim: The overall aim of this doctoral work is to explore analyse and discuss if and in what way the capabilities, as developed in the Capabilities Approach (CA) of the philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum, can supplement a best-interest evaluation of the child with the child’s right to be heard held as essential. This includes if and in what way(s) children and young people have experienced being heard and participating in decisions concerning themselves in their encounters with public authorities in a national and international child welfare context…

• Strømland, Monica; Andersen, Anders Johan W. & Bahus, Marianne (2024). In your best interest A study of how children have experienced being heard in child welfare services and how the Capabilities Approach could strengthen the understanding of the child’s best interests. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 9788284271859. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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