The paper reports a longitudinal study of the post-pregnancy work outcomes for full-time working women who were pregnant with their first baby. Regression analyses revealed that women who did not return to work as intended were differentiated from those who did return to work by the amount of planning they had done in pregnancy, as well as having lower pre-natal income and less anti-cipated support within the workplace. Almost one third of those who returned to work part-time reported reduced job status. The study shows the importance of workplace planning and support in return to work after maternity leave. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2003..

No abstract

No abstract

Background-Absenteeism from university teaching sessions is increasingly becoming a common phenomenon and remains a major concern to universities. Poor attendance has significant and detrimental effects on students themselves, their peers and teaching staff. There is however, a lack of previous research that has investigated demographic and psychological predictors of non-attendance alongside salient reasons student offer for their absence; it is this 'gap' that the present study attempts to fill. Method-618 undergraduate university students from a single UK university studying various courses completed a bespoke questionnaire that assessed their estimated percentage attendance at lectures and seminars over the academic year. Students answered demographic questions, completed psychometric tests of perceived confidence (Perceived Confidence for Learning: Williams and Deci 1996) and university belongingness (Psychological Sense of School Membership; Goodenow 1993a), and rated the degree to which possible reasons for non-attendance applied to themselves. Results-Multiple regression analyses were carried out separately for estimated attendance at lectures and seminars. Results demonstrated that significant predictors of poorer attendance for both scenarios were; experiencing a lower sense of belongingness to university; working more hours in paid employment; having more social life commitments; facing coursework deadlines and experiencing mental health issues. Conclusions-Improving a sense of belonging to university and targeting interventions at students working in paid employment may be effective at increasing attendance. Providing support for students with mental health issues, structuring courses around coursework deadlines, and helping students to management their attendance around social activities could also be advantageous.

To date, the work-family literature has examined conflict between work and family and family and work. In this research the use of the word "family" usually denotes child-care responsibilities. Furthermore, scales developed to measure conflict have concentrated on a family structure defined in this way. Little is known about conflict between work and non-work experienced by people who do not live within a family structure that includes children. The aim of this paper is to examine whether existing work-family and family-work conflict measures might be adapted to measure work-life conflict and life-work conflict for full-time female workers (N = 940) with and without children. Results suggest that a work-family conflict scale may not adequately measure the conflicts experienced by people who do not live within a family structure that involves children. The implications of these findings are further discussed with suggestions concerning the feasibility of using a generic work-life scale to measure work-life balance and a specific work-family scale to measure work-family balance.