Level of support is represented by
the bottom left axis. The vertical axis represents the percentage
of responses falling into each category.
The responses for each different support
source — "Health Visitor" through to "Mother-in-Law" — have
been stacked in descending order of the average perceived
level of support provided.
The averages of the top two are insignificantly
different from one another, but sigificantly greater than
the third, and the mother-in-law average is significantly
lower than even the midwives. Otherwise only differences
in rank of 2 are significant.
These support profiles exhibit a few
characteristics which bear comment, even if statistical
significance cannot be claimed: the profiles for mother-in-laws,
midwives and mothers, all peak at "Indifference/Neutrality"
and distinguish themselves by the steepness of the gradients
at either side. Health Visitors and GPs peak to the far
right. (The
position of GPs has changed in this respect from the earlier
analysis). The responses from
husbands/partners are polarised. Presumably neutrality is
less acceptable.
 PND
is very likely to change a woman's relationship with her
partner. Only 27% of woman report no change. Those reporting
a deterioration outnumber those reporting improvement by
a factor of about 3:2. As might be expected, there is a
strong link between the quality of support provided and
the strength of the subsequent relationship. And lukewarm
support isn't adequate. Only by providing 100% support can
a husband or partner expect the relationship to improve.
In other categories
relationship changes are reported for 36% of respondents.
There appear to be two distinct groups: strangers, medics
and parents, for which an average of 43% is reported, and
older children and work colleagues where 25% is reported.
These must be provisional groupings since there is no obvious
logic to them.
Where change is reported,
the balance varies. For medics and parents, as many report
improvement as deterioration. For older children and work
colleagues, the ratio of deterioration to improvement in
relationships is ~4:3.
Perhaps the most remarkable
finding of all — consistent with the earlier analysis —
is that, in the 42% of cases where changed relationships
with strangers are reported, the changes are for the worse
by a ratio of ~3 to 1.
Ralph Seeley
18 March 2006
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