Folkhälsopolicys om yngre barn, sexualitet och professionella förhållningssätt: potentiella effekter för förskola och barnhälsovård

From a professional perspective, sexuality is often regarded as a sensitive and challenging issue, particularly when it comes to young children. The aim of this article is to analyse how online resources for professionals in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and child healthcare, discursively problematize young children, sexuality and professional approaches. To do this, we have used an analytical method for policy analysis that focuses on governance and discursive problematizations (WPR). The analysis reveals differences between policy for ECEC and policy for child healthcare in how they describe and address sexuality, as well as in what they consider to be valid sources of knowledge. The material targeted at ECEC constructs children as innocent and in need of protection from harmful adult sexuality. In contrast, the material directed at child healthcare present children as sexual subjects. We interpret the more cautious approach to children's own sexuality in ECEC as stemming from its more ambiguous professional role, compared to the clearer role defined within child healthcare.