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Mental health in Sweden is on the decline, with young people reporting the poorest outcomes. Reports show how schools fail in their preventive work when dealing with mental illness and that the burden of responsibility falls mainly on teachers who are forced to take initiative and thus are behind the few efforts that are made. The purpose of the study is to contribute with increased knowledge about how teachers are affected by their students’ struggle with mental health. Using an activity-pedagogical and social-cognitive theoretical approach and with qualitative content analysis, the results of five qualitative interviews with Swedish secondary school teachers are examined. The results of this study find that teachers are reporting a decline in mental health in their students and that they feel the weight of responsibility in dealing with this very complex issue. The results show that teachers tend to seek help and support via their teacher colleagues rather than the mental health professionals in the student health team. The interviews also showed that teachers in a lot of cases can tell early on when their students are experiencing symptoms of mental illness and in doing so take it upon themselves to adapt their planning and teaching to facilitate the student’s learning. Mental illness is however not considered when grading. Teachers are missing the resources to support students in mental illness and the burden of responsibility needs to be shared with professionals who are trained in and equipped with dealing with mental health.

This paper investigates how Swedish upper secondary school students relate to the financial support available from the Swedish state of education. It also looks at the attitudes of such students to the new CSN[1]truancy rules as they apply to school politics. Is there a difference in students’ attitude to these truancy rules and does that difference depend on the students’ socio-economic standard, whether they come from a wealthy background or a marginalised society or whether they are ethnic Swedish? Does this in any way affect the attitudes of the students? This financial support is only paid to those students who do not skip school. If they lose their right to this contribution because of truancy, their parents will also forfeit the right to the financial subsidies to which they may be entitled. Naturally, this may affect students in different ways, depending on what kind of financial situation their family is in. Do some students go to school out of their own financial interest or out of that of their parents? Through focus-group interviews, students have expressed their opinions, told about their experiences and stated their attitudes with regards to these matters. The results of these interviews are based upon which school they go to and where the school is situated and these results have subsequently been analysed through Max Weber’s and Immanuel Wallerstein’s sociological theories about society, nation, class and gender. [1]Centrala Studiestödsnämnden- Swedish Financial Aid for Studies