Background characteristics of the total sample and the three age groups are described in Table 1. Higher proportions of men in the two oldest age categories had a college/university degree,compared with the youngest. They also more often belonged to the highest income category and consequently worried less about their family’s financial situation than their younger peers. In contrast, the youngest men had the lowest level of education and income, and the highest frequency of worries about socioeconomic factors, such as family finances and work. With age, the proportion of planned pregnancies increased and the older men indulged in more preparations for childbirth and parenthood than the young, such as reading parenthood literature, practicing psychoprophylactic breathing and relaxation with their partner,and paying a visit to the labour ward. The mean age of the men’s partners varied between the age groups and was 24 years for the young men, 29 years for men of average age and 32 years for
those of advanced age. In the total sample the partner’s mean age was 29 years (SD 4.5). Ninety-seven per cent of the men of young and advanced age had primiparous partners, as did 95% of the men of advanced age (p-0.47).