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Background Many women temporarily reduce work hours or stop working when caring for small children. However, mothers of children with special health care needs may face particular challenges balancing childrearing responsibilities and employment demands. This study examines how the work participation among mothers of children with special health care needs compares with that of mothers in general during early motherhood, focusing in particular on the extent of the child's additional health care needs. Methods By linkage of the population-based Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study with national registers on employment, child health care needs, and social background factors, 41 255 mothers employed prior to childbirth were followed until child age 3 years to investigate associations between the child's care needs and mother's dropping out of employment. Results In total, 16.3% of the formerly employed mothers were no longer employed at child age 3 years. Mothers of children with mild care needs did not differ from mothers in general, whereas mothers of children with moderate [ Risk Ratio ( RR) 1.45; 95% confidence interval ( CI) 1.17, 1.80] and severe care needs [ RR 2.19; 95% CI 1.67, 2.87] were at substantial risk of not being employed at follow-up. The impact of the child's health care needs remained strong also after adjusting for several factors associated with employment in general. Conclusions Extensive childhood health care needs are associated with reduced short-term employment prospects and remain a substantial influence on mothers' work participation during early motherhood, irrespective of other important characteristics associated with maternal employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) is the most widely used scale to assess a variety of symptoms in patients with schizophrenia and other psychoses. The factor structure of the PANSS has been examined with confirmatory factor analyses in several studies, but not in a well-defined first-episode psychosis sample. The aim of this paper is to examine the statistical fit of five different PANSS models in a first-episode, non-affective psychosis sample. Confirmatory factor analyses were performed on PANSS data (n = 588). A main criterion for best fit was defined as the Expected Cross Validation Index (ECVI). No tested model revealed an optimally satisfactory model fit index. The Wallwork/Fortgang five-factor model demonstrated the most optimal psychometric properties. The corresponding subscales of all evaluated five-factor models were strongly intercorrelated. The Wallwork/Fortgang five-factor model was found to be statistically and clinically ideal among patients with first-episode psychosis. Therefore, we recommend this model in forthcoming studies among patients with first-episode psychosis. However, to prevent the loss of clinically valuable information on an item level, we do not recommend removing any items from the original form. Our study also implies that the specific choice of model will not have a substantial effect on outcome results in studies on the course and outcome in first-episode psychosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Aims To investigate associations between maternal stress and smoking prior to, during and 6 months after the pregnancy. Design A prospective population-based cohort study. Setting Norway. Participants A total of 71 757 women in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) participating twice during pregnancy and at 6 months postpartum. Measurements Respondents' estimates of anxiety and depression, relationship discord and negative life events were measured, along with self-reports of smoking behaviour and demographic variables. Smoking was assessed at gestation weeks 17 and 30 and at 6 months postpartum. Findings Of the 27.5% women who smoked at conception, 55.8% quit smoking during pregnancy. At 6 months postpartum, 28.9% of quitters had relapsed to smoking. In total, 12.9% of the sample reported smoking during the pregnancy. Adjusted for well-known risk factors, women reporting high levels of anxiety and depression had a decreased likelihood of quitting smoking during pregnancy [odds ratio (OR) 0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.73, 0.88) and an increased likelihood of relapsing after delivery (OR 1.26, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.44). Both relationship discord (OR 0.82, 95% CI: 0.75, 0.90) and exposure to negative life events (OR 0.93, 95%: CI 0.90, 0.96) had a negative influence on quitting smoking during pregnancy but had no influence on relapse to smoking postpartum. Conclusions Maternal stress and relationship discord may inhibit smoking cessation during pregnancy and promote resumption of smoking after pregnancy in women who have achieved abstinence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper scrutinises the work environment hypothesis of bullying by examining relationships between psychosocial factors at work and bullying within departments on a group level of analysis, as compared to the many studies executed on an individual level of analysis. Relationships between quantitative demands, job control, role demands, leadership behaviour and social climate, and observed bullying were studied in a convenience sample consisting of 276 departments with a total of 4,064 respondents. Between-group bivariate correlations showed relatively strong relationships ( r > .52) between the predictors social climate, leadership behaviour, and role demands, respectively, and observed bullying in the department. A two-factor higher-level model was formulated for the independent variables yielding two latent factors reflecting an interpersonal domain and a task-oriented domain, where the former was strongly associated with observed bullying at a group level of analysis (Beta =−.73), while the last factor yielded an insignificant contribution. The results confirm that a poor social work environment exists within departments in which bullying takes place, hence, yielding further support to the work environment hypothesis. In line with the present results, future studies on workplace bullying should include a group level of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hauge, L. J., Skogstad, A. & Einarsen, S. (2010). The relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 426–433. Exposure to workplace bullying has been argued to be a severe social stressor and a more crippling and devastating problem for affected individuals than the effects of all other work-related stressors put together. However, few studies have explicitly investigated this assumption. In a representative sample of the Norwegian working population, the present study investigated the relative contribution of workplace bullying as a predictor of individual and organizational related outcomes after controlling for the well-documented job stressors of job demands, decision authority, role ambiguity and role conflict. Bullying was found to be a significant predictor of all the outcomes included, showing a substantial relative contribution in relation to anxiety and depression, while for job satisfaction, turnover intention and absenteeism, more modest relative contributions were identified. Workplace bullying is indeed a potent social stressor with consequences similar to, or even more severe than, the effects of other stressors frequently encountered within organizations. Thus, the finding that bullying has a considerable effect on exposed individuals also when controlling for the effects of other job stressors demonstrates bullying as a serious problem at workplaces that needs to be actively prevented and managed in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]