Some 90 percent of children spend their early years living with both parents. Photo: Ulf Huett Nilsson/imagebank.sweden.se
Swedish law ensures that children are well protected and their rights are defended. There are also various organizations dedicated to the wellbeing of young people. In 1979, Sweden became the first country in the world to make beating or spanking children a criminal offence.
In 1993, the Swedish Government appointed an ombudsman to protect children’s rights and look after their interests. The Ombudsman for Children in Sweden is obliged to follow the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and enforce it in Swedish society. Sweden was one of the first countries to sign up.
Help and support
There are many organizations that young people in Sweden can turn to if they need help. Children’s Rights in Society (BRIS) offers support services such as telephone helplines, chat and e-mail counseling. In 2010 BRIS had a total of 115,335 contacts with children and teenagers. Friends is an organization dedicated to stamping out bullying, mainly in schools but also outside – during organized sports activities, for example. Since being set up in 1997, Friends has cooperated with about 1,500 schools. Save the Children Sweden is another organization that defends the rights of children. It has more than 80,000 members.
www.bris.se
www.friends.se
www.savethechildren.se
Family life
Some 90 percent of children in Sweden start off living with their mother and father, who may or may not be married, and tend to have one or two children on average. But separation is not unusual. Today 74 percent of children under 18 live with both their birth parents, while 27 percent have a stepfather or stepmother. About one in five children in Sweden has a family with roots in another country. Most children living in Sweden who were born abroad, or whose parents were born abroad, come from Iraq, Somalia, Poland or Thailand. About 14,000 of these children were adopted from another country. Almost 60 percent of children live in detached houses, 28 percent live in apartment blocks and 12 percent live in row houses.
Working parents
Eighty-one percent of all children have a mother who goes out to work, and 92 percent have fathers with jobs. Each set of parents gets 480 days of paid parental leave per child, which must be claimed before the child turns eight.
Most parental leave is taken by mothers, but fathers are spending an increasing amount of time at home with their children. Men now claim about 24 percent of all parental leave taken.
In Sweden, many children walk or cycle to school. Photo: Bildarkivet.se
Nine years of compulsory schooling
The Swedish Education Act states that all children and young people must have equal access to education, regardless of gender, their place of residence, or any social or economic factors. Education is free in Sweden, except for preschool and higher education (which are partly governmentfunded). School attendance is compulsory for all children through ninth grade. Then they have the option of staying on for senior high (including students with intellectual disabilities).
Besides senior high, other optional education on offer includes preschool, kindergarten, municipal adult education and adult education for those with intellectual disabilities.
Today, almost all children also attend kindergarten at the age of six. In practice, this means they tend to get at least 10 years of education in all.
The school year is divided into two semesters. The fall semester begins around mid-August and runs until the end of December, with a one-week break in the middle. The spring semester starts in the second week of January and runs until the second week of June. A normal school week is five days long: Monday to Friday. Children aged between six and 12 are offered day care before and after school.
In 2012, a new grading system has been introduced for children in Swedish schools, from sixth grade on. They are now being graded from A-F.
Hobbies and pastimes
Like most children the world over, Swedish children enjoy listening to music and hanging out with friends. They are also encouraged to focus on their interests. Singing and playing a musical instrument are popular extra-curricular activities. Twenty-nine percent of girls and 26 percent of boys aged 13-15 play an instrument in their spare time. Everyone is encouraged to take up sport, and 68 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds are members of a sports club. Soccer is the most popular sport among both girls and boys. Then comes horseriding for girls. Boys prefer floorball, followed by swimming and ice hockey. The sports interest goes all the way to the top; Sweden is number seven on the Olympic medal score list.
Internet and TV
Young Swedes surf the internet as much as they watch TV. Almost a third of all 13- to 15-year-olds watch TV at least three hours a day. Just as many 12- to 16-year-olds spend as much time surfing the internet. Half of all four-year-olds have browsed the internet. Online TV sites and YouTube are among the most popular, but what children do online depends on their age and gender. Doing school work, blogging, chatting and using social-networking sites and smartphone applications are the most common pastimes among older children. Younger children are more into games.
Pettson and Findus, Sven Nordqvist’s children’s-book characters played out on stage at Junibacken, a museum in Stockholm that is dedicated to young people’s literature. Photo: Junibacken
Youth culture
With free spirits such as Pippi Longstocking and Emil to inspire them in books and films, Swedish children are encouraged to think independently and question societal norms.
What young Swedes watch
Swedish directors making movies for young people do not shy away from difficult subjects. The Ice Dragon (Isdraken, 2012) by Martin Högdahl and Håkan Bjerking is about 11-year-old Mik who is left with his hippie aunt in the country when his father, a hard-rock musician, is admitted to a treatment home for alcoholics.
Lisa Siwe’s Glowing Stars (I taket lyser stjärnorna, 2009), based on Johanna Thydell’s award-winning novel, is about a 14-year-old torn between caring for her mother, who has cancer, and her desire for a normal teenage life.
But Swedish films for young audiences do not address heavy topics alone. Kenny Begins (2009), by Carl Åstrand and Mats Lindberg, is a comedy about a boy who wants to become a galaxy superhero while his parents think he should become a hairdresser and work in the family beauty salon.
What young Swedes read
Astrid Lindgren — creator of Pippi Longstocking, Emil, Karlsson-on-the-Roof and numerous other story-book characters — is the most-read children’s author in Sweden. Her books are more widespread than any other Swedish author’s. Having been translated into more than 90 languages, 145 million of her books have been sold globally. Many have been turned into films or plays.
www.astridlindgren.se
Gunilla Bergström wanted to write about real life, and created a little boy, Alfie Atkins (Alfons Åberg), as her main character. She describes the stories as mini-dramas on the psychological level. Making mischief, being frightened of ghosts, missing a friend, getting into fights, Christmas being over… they cover the sorts of things any child can relate to. The series includes more than 23 titles so far, published in 29 languages.
www.alfons.se
Sven Nordqvist’s Pettsson and Findus stories and Anders Jacobsson’s and Sören Olsson’s Sune books are widely read, too. Martin Widmark’s Lasse Maja series has been translated into 19 languages. His books have become bestsellers and are also among the most popular of all the children’s fiction housed in Sweden’s libraries at the moment.
In 2011, a total of 1,747 children’s and young people’s books were published in Sweden.
Out and about. Children spend part of every school day outdoors, whatever the weather. Some preschools and other institutions are even based on the concept of learning outdoors: I Ur och Skur. Photo: Lars Owesson/Bildarkivet.se
Tomorrow’s geniuses
Swedish schools are working with a variety of organizations to encourage young people’s interest in technology and entrepreneurship. Here are two examples:
Finn upp
A teaching method designed to awaken a desire for knowledge in school children, Finn upp encourages them to invent things to help them learn. A Finn upp competition is held every three years for young inventors in grades six to nine. The event aims to inspire a new generation of inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs, and release the power of fresh ideas. Finn upp was founded in 1979 by the Swedish Society of Engineers (Ingenjörsamfundet).
www.finnupp.se
Snilleblixtarna
The Flashes of Genius (Snilleblixtarna), a non-profit association, is geared to children from preschool age to fifth grade. The aim is to encourage children’s interest in technology, the natural sciences and entrepreneurship. Snilleblixtarna provides teachers and educators with tools and a working model to stimulate children’s curiosity, desire to learn and ability to think critically.
www.snilleblixtarna.se
Publisher:
Swedish Institute
Published:
June 2012
Copyright:
Published by the Swedish Institute on www.sweden.se. All content is protected by Swedish copyright law. The text may be reproduced, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast in any media for non-commercial use with reference to www.sweden.se. But never photographs or illustrations.