Photo by Lars Kastilan on Colourbox.
NEW ARTICLE by PhD candidate Frøydis Lønborg Haarberg examines Nordic public perceptions of children’s participation in child protection and custody court proceedings.
The study is part of the PARTICIPATION project and published in Nordisk Socialrättslig Tidskrift (NST). Drawing on a representative survey of more than 5,000 respondents across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, the article investigates how Nordic populations think children’s genuine views should be obtained in court.
The findings show strong public support for child welfare experts representing children (80%) and for direct child participation (70%), while views on lawyer representation are more divided. The study also finds that paternalistic attitudes negatively affect support for direct participation, and that country differences in public perceptions do not align with country-specific participation policies.
The article is open-access and available here.