About
Tonje Gundersen is a researcher at NOVA, Section for Research on Childhood, Family and Child Welfare. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Oslo (2012). Her dissertation was about the challenges parents of children with rare diagnoses may face and their coping strategies. Her fields of research are disability, child welfare services and family, user experiences and welfare state services. Her research portfolio ranges from evaluations of crisis centres, Barnahus and various government grant schemes to research on young people who have experience from child welfare services and people with disabilities experience of violence. From 2020 to 2024 she has been involved in a research programme on family counselling and led a project about youth with substance abuse challenges in residential care and alternative arrangements for your unable to live in ordinary residential care settings. She has extensive project management experience and was for four years (2013-2017) head of the section for Research on Childhood, Family and Child welfare.
Field of study
Violence Child care Disability Parenthood Human service organization
Administrative field of work
Research quality Research collaboration Research strategy Contract work Project management Research communication Competence development Personell administration
Research groups
Research projects
Ongoing research projects
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Disability and Reproductive Health and Rights in Norway
The project will examine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health services in their encounters with people with different disabilities in relation to their reproductive rights.
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Doing Co-operation. A Co-study with Landsforeningen for barnevernsbarn and Sarpsborg Municipality to Enhance Support for Vulnerable Children and Youth (CoChildren)
How can child welfare services and other support services collaborate more effectively to assist children and young people in vulnerable life situations?
Completed research projects
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Against All Odds?
Why do some care leavers end up doing well as young adults, against all odds? What does "doing well" mean to young women and men, with majority backgrounds? These are questions we seek to investigate in this project.
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Child Welfare Institutions for Young People with Drug Addiction and Separate Institutions for One Single Young Person
The project investigate the child welfare institutions for young people with drug addiction and separate institutions for one single young person.
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Consequences of the Pandemic for Living Conditions and Equality
In this project we will investigate the consequences of the pandemic for living conditions for children and young people, equality in families and for individuals, including children and adults with disabilities.
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Evaluation of Norwegian Barnahus
This project is a national evaluation of the Norwegian Barnahus model.
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Family Counselling: Equal Services for a Diverse Population?
The researchers investigate what it implies for the family services to provide equal services in different local contexts, and what kind of challenges the services experience when trying to provide equal services.
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The Pilot Project (Los-prosjektet) – an evaluation of state subsidies to municipalities targeting young people at risk of dropping out of school.
This evaluation will investigate how municipalities who have been granted subsidies to establish the Pilot Project in their community have organized the project.
Publications and research
Scientific publications
Neumann, Cecilie Elisabeth Basberg
;
Gundersen, Tonje
(2025).
Grenseløs miljøterapi: Om grensesetting og frivillighet på ruskollektiver.
Fontene forskning.
https://doi.org/https://fontene.no/forskning/grens
Pålsson, David;
Backe-Hansen, Elisabeth
;
Gundersen, Tonje
; Kalliomaa-Puha, Laura; Lausten, Mette; Pösö, Tarja
(2024).
Licence Loss: Revocations of Residential Care Licences in Four Nordic Countries.
Child & Family Social Work.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.13193
Gundersen, Tonje
; Tveito, Siri Berg
(2022).
Barnevernets oppfølging av fosterforeldrenes egne barn.
Tidsskriftet Norges Barnevern.
Vol. 99.
https://doi.org/10.18261/tnb.99.2-3.3
Gundersen, Tonje
(2021).
Embedded in relations—Interactions as a source of agency and life opportunities for care-experienced young adults.
Children & society.
Vol. 35.
https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12434
Bakketeig, Elisiv
; Boddy, Janet;
Gundersen, Tonje
; Fidelma, Hanrahan; Østergaard, Jeanette
(2020).
Deconstructing doing well; what can we learn from care experienced young people in England, Denmark and Norway?.
Children and Youth Services Review.
Vol. 118.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105333
Gundersen, Tonje
; Vislie, Camilla Cecilie
(2019).
Voldsutsatte med funksjonsnedsettelser - individuelle og strukturelle barrierer mot å søke hjelp.
Skjørten, Kristin; Bakketeig, Elisiv; Bjørnholt, Margunn; Mossige, Svein (Ed.).
Vold i nære relasjoner: Forståelser, konsekvenser og tiltak. p. 159-177.
Universitetsforlaget.
https://doi.org/10.18261/9788215032320-2019-09
Neumann, Cecilie Elisabeth Basberg
;
Gundersen, Tonje
(2018).
Care parading as service: Negotiating recognition and equality in user-controlled personal assistance.
Gender, Work & Organization.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12297
Neumann, Cecilie Elisabeth Basberg
;
Gundersen, Tonje
(2016).
Personlig assistanse - omsorg eller service?.
Neumann, Cecilie Elisabeth Basberg; Olsvold, Nina; Thagaard, Tove (Ed.).
Omsorgsarbeidets sosiologi. p. 131-160.
Fagbokforlaget.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5189827
Kynø, Nina Margrethe
;
Ravn, Ingrid Helen
; Lindemann, Rolf; Smeby, Nina Aarhus; Torgersen, Anne M;
Gundersen, Tonje
(2013).
Parents of preterm-born children; sources of stress and worry and experiences with an early intervention programme - a qualitative study.
BMC Nursing.
https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6955-12-28
Gundersen, Tonje
(2012).
Human Dignity at Stake - how parents of disabled children experience the welfare system.
Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research.
Vol. 14.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2011.592955
