"Vi vil kun have glade børn med": Et emotionssociologisk studie af børns oplevelser og håndteringer af følelsesmæssige krav i overgangen fra børnehave til SFO og skole

In this PhDthesis, " We only want happy children to join. we only want to include happy children - An emotion-sociological study of children's experiences and handling of emotional demands in the transition from kindergarten to after-school care and school" children's experiences and handling of the emotional demands that they encounter are studied in the transition from kindergarten to preschool and school. In the thesis, children's perspective is implemented with inspiration from the psychosocial research methodology and the sociology of emotions, the thesis works with the development of methods that can be used to gain knowledge about children's perspectives on experiences and handling of the emotional demands that they encounter. The dissertation is based empirically on an ethnographic field study, which takes place over approx. 2 years, and in which 16 children have been followed in their transition from kindergarten to preschool and school.
To understand how children experience and handle emotional demands, the thesis draws inspiration from research in adults' well-being at workplaces, which shows that working with one's own emotions and adapting one's emotions of what one should feel to expectations of the surroundings can have inappropriate consequences for adults and lead to mental exhaustion stress and burnout thus affect well-being. Research in how children experience and handle the emotional demands associated with being a child in the transition from kindergarten to school and after-school care (SFO) is an unexplored area. The research questions that have impelled the thesis are:
How do children experience and handle the emotional demands of the transition from kindergarten to school?
What influence do the demands have on the children?
In addition, the thesis worked with three cognitive interests:
1: To create knowledge about how it is methodologically possible to study children's
experiences and handling of the emotional demands in the transition from kindergarten to preschool and school. In this context, the thesis offers a methodological contribution, which shows how one as a researcher can use one's feelings in the research process as an analytical tool to understand children's experiences and handling of emotional demands. In addition, how one as a researcher can gain knowledge about children’s experiences and handling of emotional demands not only through verbal statements but also through children’s expressions and body language.
2: To create knowledge about what impact children's handling of emotional demands can have for the children. In this context, the thesis contributes to the theory development of Arlie Hochschild's theoretical concepts concerning emotional demands and the meanings of adults' emotional work. The theory development consisted of trying to understand how Hochschild's theoretical apparatus can be rewarding when examining how children experience and handle emotion work in a way that has not been studied before.
3: To create knowledge about the emotional demands children experience in the
transition from kindergarten to preschool and school. Here, the thesis shows how
schools' approach to school readiness, well-being and classroom management can have an impact on the emotional demands that children face in life during the transition from kindergarten to after-school care and school. The dissertation's analysis shows in this context how children experience emotional dissonance when meeting emotional demands. Some of the emotional requirements involve requirements that children should preferably be happy and that there is a large focus on well-being and well-being efforts. Well-being initiatives can also be said to have a potential downside because the children's negative emotional expressions are not accepted.
The conclusion of this thesis contributes to the debate about what might cause impact on children's well-being since they identify some of the cross-pressures, emotional strains and dilemmas that our institutional organizations put children in.
Hereby, the conclusion of this thesis' point to some of the meanings that emotional demands have for children. Overall, the thesis is thus an argument for a more systematic investigation of the emotional dimension of children's lives, as well as it identifies ways to go in this work both theoretically and methodologically.