istics and coping behaviour. The explained variance at the departmental and the occupational levels on mental health, work characteristics and coping was assessed using Anova's. Results: 90 employees working in departments which were headed by one supervisor, were eligible for this study. The variance explained by function was 38% for autonomy, 36% for skill discretion, 14% for job demands, 27% for support by supervisor, 10% for coworker support, 17% for distress and for anxiety, 22% for depression, 22% for active coping, 10% for passive and 15% for distraction. The variance explained by departmetn (supervisor level) was 31% for autonomy, 29% for skill discretion, 28 % for job demands, 39% for support by supervisor, 31% for coworker support, 14% for distress, 16% for anxiety, 9 % for depression, 20% for active coping, 20% for passive and 25% for distraction. The present paper deals with predictors of the duration to full return to work of employees on sick leave due to psychological complaints. Research we recently conducted revealed that two factors may be predictive for the duration to full return to work (RTW). These factors are early partial RTW and work related selfefficacy. This conclusion is based on three individual focused intervention studies that have been conducted in recent years. The first study was a randomized controlled study with two experimental interventions and one no treatment condition. One hundred self-employed were randomly assigned to one of the conditions. Psychological complaints, professional efficacy and other variables were assessed before, after 4 months and after 10 months. Partial and full RTW was assessed continuously. The second study was a cluster randomized comparative intervention study with an experimental condition and a care as usual condition. One hundred sixty eight employees absent form work due to psychological complaints enrolled in the study. Psychological complaints, work related self-efficacy and other variables were assessed at three times, before, after 6 months and after 12 months. Partial and full RTW were assessed continuously. The third study was a longitudinal cohort study with 177 employees absent form work due to psychological complaints. Partial and full RTW were assessed continuously. Further, psychological complaints, work related self-efficacy and other variables were assessed at a three months time interval during one year. Both partial and work related self-efficacy appeared to be strong predictors of full RTW. This result fits the theoretical notion of graded activity as part of an individual focused treatment and the concept of self-efficacy as a moderating or facilitating factor in restoring an individual's work capacity after sick leave due to work related psychological complaints. Ethnic/racial disparities in early childhood health and development are evident in the US and UK. To date little cross-national comparative work has been carried out in this area, but with the availability of similar data collections in the US and UK such comparative work is now possible. Data from two nationally representative population based surveys, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study in the US and the Millennium Cohort Study in the UK allow questions on the origins of ethnic/racial disparities to be addressed. This symposium examines how racial/ethnic disparities in childhood health and development vary across groups and national contexts. Presentations consider the underlying pathways to a diverse set of child health and developmental markers: growth, socioemotional difficulties, mental and motor development, infant feeding and obesity. Paper 1 given by Prof Sacker will examine whether weight at birth is important for subsequent child growth and development and how patterns might vary across ethnic groups. Paper 2 given by Dr Davis-Kean examines relationships between the development of early motor skills and later mental and motor development. Paper 3 given by Dr Kelly considers whether experience of racism translates into poor developmental outcomes in childhood, and paper 4 given by Dr Simonton examines the links between unwanted pregnancy and the likelihood of breastfeeding initiation across ethnic/racial groups. Important to our understanding of ethnic/racial disparities are factors relating to the drivers for migration to the US and UK and national policy contexts for health and social care and these will be discussed. This symposium explores issues on ethnic/racial disparities in an interdisciplinary manner from the joint perspectives of psychology, epidemiology and sociology. There are clear differences in birth weight by ethnic group, but whether these disparities are replicated in later markers of physical development is unknown. We examine evidence for ethnic disparities in children's height at 3 and 5 years. Data are from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, constructed to over-represent children from ethnic minority, giving us reasonable sample sizes for Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black African and Black Caribbean groups. Mean birth weight of ethnic minority children was significantly lower than that of the ethnic majority (range 3.06 -3.34 kg versus 3.41 kg). By contrast, ethnic minority children were taller than the White majority at ages 3 and 5, significantly so in the case of Pakistani, Black Caribbean and Black African children (by 0.5 cm, 1.4 cm. and 3.5 cm at 5 years). Controlling for parental height to take account of intergenerational effects did not affect height differentials. Two mechanisms were hypothesised: (a) a poorer intrauterine environment given the short stature of some minority children's mothers resulted in catch-up postnatal growth and (b) conditions during the parents' childhood led to a reduced capacity to reach their own height potential. A reparameterization of parent heights showed that mother's height contributed more to predicting child height than mean parental height. Adding birth weight to the model showed that height was positively related to birth weight and attenuated the extra contribution from mothers' heights to non significance. The interaction of mean parental height with ethnicity was significant in models at age 3 and age 5. For all ethnic minority groups, mean parental height was more weakly related to child height than in White majority families, although only significantly different in the largest Pakistani group. In conclusion, we found evidence of catch-up growth in ethnic minority children and that ethnic minority parents had not reached their height potential. There was no suggestion that the lower birth weight of ethnic minority children has adverse consequences for their growth in the preschool years. Background: Previous work has shown that experience of racism is related to poor health outcomes in adults, but little is known about whether such experiences translate into developmental outcomes in children. Objectives: 1. to examine the relationship between parental experience of racism and markers of child development 2. to assess whether family socioeconomic position and neighbourhood level disadvantage explain observed relationships. Methods: Data from the UK Millennium cohort study on ethnic minority participants of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Caribbean and African descent were used (N=2157). Questions on parental interpersonal experience of racism, and the perception of racist attacks in the residential neighbourhood were asked when cohort members were aged 5 years. A summary 'objective' score for residential perception of racism was created. Markers of child development at age 5 were obesity and overweight, socioemotional difficulties, and cognitive ability scores. Results: 43% of parents reported any experience of interpersonal racism, and 12% reported that racist attacks or insults were common in their residential neighbourhood. It appeared that parental reports of interpersonal racism were not strongly associated with poor developmental outcomes. Conversely, perception of racism in the area of residence was significantly associated with socioemotional difficulties (coeff 1.4, p<0.001) and spatial ability (coeff -1.4, p<0.01). A trend was observed between the objective marker of area racism and an increased risk of obesity and lower verbal and non-verbal ability scores. The objective measure of area racism was found to be associated with lower spatial ability score. Statistical adjustment for socioeconomic factors attenuated associations, but area and objective measures remained independently associated with socioemotional difficulties and spatial ability. Conclusions: Parental perceptions of racism are linked to poor developmental outcomes in children. Economic disadvantage among ethnic minority groups appears to partly explain some of these relationships. Recent research has shown that motor skills in children may be an important predictor in achievement in the elementary school years (Grissmer, et al, 2009) . In this study we test whether early gross motor skills and early mental skills in infants and toddlers are predicted by early motor movements such as pulling up or walking with the assistance of other. These early skills may be important for indicating brain development that may be promoting later motor development and problem solving. In order to examine our model we use the first wave (9 months old) of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), which is a nationally representative sample of children born in the US in 2001. For the analyses, 10, 680 children were examined. We controlled for child's age, being foreign born, multiple births, low birth weight, highest parental education in the home, and household income. We examined whether children were breastfeed as a parental nutrition indicator, and age child pulled themselves to standing, age of walking with help as child as indicators of early motor skills/early brain development.