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The relationship with place has been recognized as a significant dimension of rural youth leisure, both through the discursive constructions of place, but also as affective and embodied dimensions. This study captures these processes by applying the concept of place-making as a set of recurrent discursive processes, analyzing how girls in Northern Sweden engage in place-making alongside, beyond, and in contrast to dominant discourses on leisure, rurality and wellbeing. The study draws on data from photo-elicited focus groups with girls from two sports organizations. The discursive psychology analysis resulted in three interpretative repertoires. The first repertoire describes the sharp contrast between discourses of the 'rural dull' and how stressful the participants constructed their own places of leisure. The second illustrates the gendered discourses around what is considered to be productive and respectable leisure. The third shows how the participants are made responsible for the survival of their leisure. Through place-making, the participants shape places of leisure, affecting both themselves and their rural community. They engage in, conform to, and challenge place-making within discourses of responsibility and precariousness, creating space for their own initiatives, which are simultaneously shaped by the material conditions under which these practices take place.

The aim of this qualitative study was 2-fold: to explore, in the context of young people’s civic engagement in Sweden, (i) how adult leaders perceive social factors of youth mental health and (ii) how adult leaders handle such social factors within their organizations. Interviews were conducted with leaders engaged in various civic organizations that provide leisure activities for young people. Using thematic analysis, three themes were constructed. Firstly, the social landscape of youth mental health described how adult leaders perceived the social factors of youth mental health within the context of civic engagement. Secondly, the organizational structures developed by adult leaders illustrated the organizing forms that leaders created for young people’s civic engagement. Thirdly, adult leaders’ strategies for addressing the social factors of youth mental health reflected the strategies developed to handle e.g. stress and achievement pressure. The adult leaders recognized the importance of their organizations and their huge potential to have a positive impact on youth mental health. However, some participants also saw limitations in terms of their own resources and competence. They found themselves having to address the complex issue of social factors of youth mental health regardless of whether they felt competent and prepared to do this or not. Our findings contribute to the existing knowledge on youth and community development via the role of adult leaders in promoting young people’s mental health by highlighting the organizational structures and leadership strategies developed by them.