Impact of disability on the family structure.
The 1972 survey of the disabled and nondisabled provides comparative data on the two groups that can be used to assess the effects of disability on the family structure. Although the disabled were about as likely to have married as persons in the general population, the stability of their marriages was more limited. The extended families of disabled persons generally provided no greater support through financial or household assistance or visits than did the relatives of healthy persons. Within the nuclear family, contraction of activities--rather than compensatory shifts in sex roles--and decreased participation in most aspects of living were the major consequences of disability.Image copyright AP Image caption Pitts was wounded by shrapnel but eventually made a complete recovery

US President Barack Obama has awarded America's highest military decoration to a soldier who single-handedly fended off a Taliban attack after his comrades were killed or relocated.

Former Staff Sgt Ryan Pitts, 28, is the ninth living veteran of Afghanistan or Iraq to receive the Medal of Honor.

In July 2008 he was manning an observation post that came under attack.

Though wounded, he held off the enemy with grenades and a machine gun.

"In Ryan Pitts you see the humility and the loyalty that define America's men and women in uniform," Mr Obama said at the White House ceremony on Monday. "Of this medal, he says, 'It's not mine alone. It belongs to everybody who was