Anxiety and depressive symptoms related to parenthood in a large Norwegian community sample: the HUNT2 study

The study compared anxiety and depression prevalence between parents and non-parents in a society with family- and parenthood-friendly social politics, controlling for family status and family history, age, gender, education and social class. All participants aged 30–49 (N = 24,040) in the large, non-sampled Norwegian HUNT2 community health study completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales. The slightly elevated anxiety and depression among non-parents compared to parents in the complete sample was not confirmed as statistically significant within any subgroups. Married parents and (previously unmarried) cohabiting parents did not differ in portraying low anxiety and depression prevalence. Anxiety was associated with single parenthood, living alone or being divorced, while elevated depression was found only among those living alone. Burdening selection and cultural/political context are suggested as interpretative perspectives on the contextual and personal influences on the complex relationship between parenthood and mental health

Partnership history and mental health over time

Study objective: To describe the mental health of men and women with differing histories of partnership transitions. Design: Data from nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey, a stratified general population sample, were used to calculate age standardised ratios and 95% confidence intervals for mean General Health Questionnaire scores for groups with different partnership transition histories. Participants:2127 men and 2303 women aged under 65 who provided full interviews at every survey wave. Main results: Enduring first partnerships were associated with good mental health. Partnership splits were associated with poorer mental health, although the reformation of partnerships partially reversed this. Cohabiting was more beneficial to men's mental health, whereas marriage was more beneficial to women's mental health. The more recently a partnership split had occurred the greater the negative outcome for mental health. Women seemed more adversely affected by multiple partnership transitions and to take longer to recover from partnership splits than men. Single women had good mental health relative to other women but the same was not true for single men relative to other male partnership groups. Conclusions: Partnership was protective of mental health. Mental health was worse immediately after partnership splits, and the negative outcomes for health were longer lasting in women. Future work should consider other factors that may mediate, confound, or jointly determine the relation between partnership change and health

An overlay system for data acquisition in high-energy-physics experiments

Software is described which is based on a 8k-word 16-bit computer, a fixed-head disc, and a data link to a larger computer centre. It has been used at CERN to take data and to control an experiment using multi-wire proportional chambers with a total of 6000 wires. (1 refs)

Families and children in Britain: findings from the 2002 Families and Children Study (FACS)

The 2002 Families and Children Study (FACS) is the fourth in a series of annual surveys to investigate the circumstances of British families with dependent children. This report presents descriptive findings on the circumstances of all families with dependent children in 2002. The report is divided into a number of chapters, each of which looks at a distinct feature of family life. Some of the chapters focus on the circumstances of the family unit - such as housing, income, and material deprivation; some on the circumstances of the adults in the family - such as work and health; and some on the circumstances of children - such as schooling and behaviour