Other variables, such as gender, maternal age, maternal education and marital status, household income or maternal smoking were used as additional explanatory variables. Regression modeling in STATA 10 was used to estimate the associations between study outcomes and maternal employment. Results: 19% of young adults aged 16-21 reported poor self-rated health, and mean GHQ-12 was 10.1. Approximately 40% of mothers worked at some point during age 0-4 of their child. This proportion increased to 59% at age 5-11 and 68% at age 12-16. Children of mothers who were not employed reported OR of poor SRH 1.48, 1.11 and 1.28 for 3 periods of exposure, however these effects were mostly explained when adjusted for maternal education and household income. The differences in GHQ-12 by maternal employment were similarly reduced by indicators of social position. Conclusions: The associations between maternal employment in childhood and young adults' health exist at least partly because of the generally higher social position and more stable family structure of households with working mothers. The design of invitation and reminder letters to screen for cancer has been influenced by studies comparing the psychological and attitudinal differences between participants and non-participants. Participation in cancer screening has been thought to follow the continuum of resistance model, which assumes the same factors influence early and late participation. This study investigated the validity of the continuum of resistance model for explaining participation in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. People aged 50 to 74 years, recruited from the electoral roll who had completed a baseline survey and were in the early stages of readiness to screen (n =376) were subsequently invited to complete a faecal occult blood screening test. Multivariate analyses examined the predictors of early participation (kit returned in weeks 1-6) and late participation (kit returned in weeks 7 -12). Results confirmed that different factors influenced early and late participation. Early participation was associated with employment status and barriers to screening, with retired people more likely to screen early than employed people (relative risk RR=1. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major public health problem. It is the most commonly diagnosed non-cutaneous cancer in Australia, and the second most common cause of cancer related death. The Australian government has introduced mass population screening by faecal occult blood test (FOBT) to reduce CRC incidence and mortality. However, participation in this program has been suboptimal.