Quality time
A baby's birth is one of life's most rewarding passages, but parental leaves sometimes pass too quickly than is healthy. A study of nearly 600 women by UW psychologist Janet Hyde and col-leagues found that too-short maternity leaves pose psychological stress for mothers. Short leaves, of six weeks or less, can interact with other problems new mothers face, leading to more depression than those who take 12 weeks or more. A similar study found that new dads, on average, take under five days of leave, though they'd like to take more. That number, Hyde says, could be improved with more supportive employment policies.

Work and home: A tug-of-war
Balancing the demands of work and family life could make the average working parent both happier and healthier, say UW-Madison family experts. A research team led by Hamilton McCubbin, dean of the School of Family Resources and Consumer Sciences, has identified stresses at work and at home that can increase health risks for working parents. The exhaustive study collected information over six years from 1,300 employees of a national insurance company. It found those with the highest health risks generally had the biggest pileups of work and family stresses. "Contrary to the popular literature, health risks can increase from pressures at home as well as at work," McCubbin says. "The family and the work place actually compete for a person's time, commitment and dedication. Working parents can't handle both easily." But the research does find ways working parents can achieve a healthy balance. In the work place, employees need strong supervi-sor support, group problem-solving ap-proaches and an infusion of new challenges. And in the home, good communication is a must. "If the family environment is more incendiary and combative, it puts the employee in double jeopardy," he says.