"Jag måste lyssna på honom också" : En kvalitativ studie om socialarbetares känslohantering i arbetet med våldsutövande män i nära relationer

Sammanfattning

Emotions constitute a large part of social work and are also a huge part of the social worker’s professional and personal identity. This study aims to contribute with an increasing understanding of the challenges that social workers face in the work with male perpetrators in intimate relationships as well as how they handle the emotions that occur by working with them. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with seven social workers that have different professional titles across various municipalities in Sweden. The collected data has been analysed using relevant prior research in the field, as well as the use of Hochschild theory of emotional labour by using a thematic analysis. The results from the collected data presents that social workers are heavily emotionally affected by their work and that social workers use a range of different strategies to cope with the emotions that occur in their work. The managing of emotions shows to be related to professionalism and also to establishing relations between the social worker and the male perpetrator which is crucial for an effective cooperation with the male perpetrator. The managing of emotions also appears to be needed to manage the male perpetrator’s emotions as well. The results also show that social workers rely on the organizational assistance in dealing with their emotions.