Abstract
Objectives
We examined whether childhood disruptive behavior (aggressiveness, hyperactivity and social adjustment), predicts adulthood socioeconomic position (SEP), i.e., educational level, occupational status and income and social mobility.
Methods
Social mobility was defined by comparing the participants’ adulthood socioeconomic position with that of their parents (“intergenerational social mobility”). The subjects were derived from a population-based cohort study (N = 3,600) and our sample consisted of 782 participants (403 women) aged 3–9 years at baseline and were followed until they were aged 30–36.
Results
High childhood aggression associated with low educational level and occupational status suggesting an early beginning negative tracking of aggressive behavior. High hyperactivity and poor social adjustment predicted adulthood low occupational status proposing a more slow effect on adulthood SEP. No associations between disruptive behavior and income-related mobility were found, but high hyperactivity associated with educational downward drift, whereas high aggression and low social adjustment related with occupational downward drift.
Conclusions
Results suggest that childhood disruptive behavior may have long-lasting negative effects. In order to reduce the adverse effects of disruptive behavior, early intervention of problematic behavior becomes salient.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alatupa S, Pulkki-Råback L, Hintsanen M, Mullola S, Lipsanen J, Keltikangas-Järvinen L (2011) Disruptive behaviour and school performance across comprehensive school: a prospective cohort study. Psychology 2:542–551
Alexander KL, Entwisle DR, Horsey CS (1997) From first grade forward: early foundations of high school dropout. Sociol Educ 70:87–107
American Psychiatric Association (2007) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Text revision. DSM-IV-TR. American Psychiatric Association, Arlington
Asendorpf JB, Denissen JJ, van Aken MA (2008) Inhibited and aggressive preschool children at 23 years of age: personality and social transitions into adulthood. Dev Psychol 44:997–1011
Berger M, Yule W, Rutter M (1975) Attainment and adjustment in two geographical areas: II the prevalence of specific reading retardation. Br J Psychiatry 126:510–519
Blane D (2006) The life course, the social gradient, and health. In: Marmot M, Wilkinson RG (eds) Social determinants of health, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 54–77
Blane D, Smith GD, Bartley M (1993) Social selection: what does it contribute to social class differences in health? Sociol Health Illn 15:1–15
Bradshaw CP, Schaeffer CM, Petras H, Ialongo N (2010) Predicting negative life outcomes from early aggressive—disruptive behavior trajectories: gender differences in maladaptation across life domains. J Youth Adolesc 39:953–966
Breslau J, Miller E, Breslau N, Bohnert K, Lucia V, Schweitzer J (2009) The impact of early behavior disturbances on academic achievement in high school. Pediatrics 123:1472–1476
Caspi A, Elder GH, Bem DJ (1987) Moving against the world: life-course patterns of explosive children. Dev Psychol 23:308–313
Caspi A, Moffitt TE, Entner Wright BR, Silva PA (1998) Early failure in the labor market: childhood and adolescent predictors of unemployment in the transition to adulthood. Am Sociol Rev 63:424–451
Dubow EF, Huesmann LR, Boxer P, Pulkkinen L, Kokko K (2006) Middle childhood and adolescent contextual and personal predictors of adult educational and occupational outcomes: a mediational model in two countries. Dev Psychol 42:937–949
Englund MM, Egeland B, Oliva EM, Collins WA (2008) Childhood and adolescent predictors of heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders in early adulthood: a longitudinal developmental analysis. Addiction 103(Suppl 1):23–35
Heiervang E, Stevenson J, Lund A, Hugdahl K (2001) Behaviour problems in children with dyslexia. Nord J Psychiatry 55:251–256
Hinshaw S (1992a) Academic underachievement, attention deficits, and aggression: comorbidity and implications for intervention. J Consult Clin Psychol 60:893–903
Hinshaw S (1992b) Externalizing behavior problems and academic underachievement in childhood and adolescence: causal relationships and underlying mechanisms. Psychol Bull 111:108–126
Hintsanen M, Lipsanen J, Pulkki-Råback L, Kivimäki M, Hintsa T, Keltikangas-Järvinen L (2009) EAS temperaments as predictors of unemployment in young adults: a 9-year follow-up of the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study. J Res Pers 43:618–623
Katainen S, Räikkönen K (1999) Maternal child-rearing attitudes and role satisfaction and children’s temperament as antecedents. J Youth Adolesc 28:139
King SM, Iacono WG, McGue M (2004) Childhood externalizing and internalizing psychopathology in the prediction of early substance use. Addiction 99:1548–1559
Kokko K, Pulkkinen L (2000) Aggression in childhood and long-term unemployment in adulthood: a cycle of maladaptation and some protective factors. Prev Treat 3:1–17
Lynch J, Kaplan G (2000) Socioeconomic position. In: Berkman LF, Kawachi I (eds) Social epidemiology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 13–35
Marmot M (2003) Understanding social inequalities in health. Perspect Biol Med 46:S9–S23
Newman DL, Caspi A, Moffitt TE, Silva PA (1997) Antecedents of adult interpersonal functioning: effects of individual differences in age 3 temperament. Dev Psychol 33:206–217
Otten R, Wanner B, Vitaro F, Engels RC (2009) Disruptiveness, peer experiences and adolescent smoking: a long-term longitudinal approach. Addiction 104:641–650
Pesonen A, Räikkönen K, Keskivaara P, Keltikangas-Järvinen L (2003) Difficult temperament in childhood and adulthood: continuity from maternal perceptions to self-ratings over 17 years. Personal Individ Differ 34:19–31
Pesonen A, Räikkönen K, Strandberg T, Keltikangas-Järvinen L, Järvenpää A (2004) Insecure adult attachment style and depressive symptoms: implications for parental perceptions of infant temperament. Infant Ment Health J 25:99–116
Petitclerc A, Tremblay RE (2009) Childhood disruptive behaviour disorders: review of their origin, development, and prevention. Can J Psychiatry 54:222–231
Pulkki L, Kivimäki M, Keltikangas-Järvinen L, Elovainio M, Leino M, Viikari J (2003) Contribution of adolescent and early adult personality to the inverse association between education and cardiovascular risk behaviours: prospective population-based cohort study. Int J Epidemiol 32:968–975
Pulkki-Råback L, Elovainio M, Kivimäki M, Raitakari OT, Keltikangas-Järvinen L (2005) Temperament in childhood predicts body mass in adulthood: the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study. Health Psychol 24:307–315
Räikkönen K, Katainen S, Keskivaara P, Kelikangas-Järvinen L (2000) Temperament, mothering, and hostile attitudes: a 12-year longitudinal study. Person Soc Psychol Bull 26:3–12
Raitakari OT, Juonala M, Kähönen M, Taittonen L, Laitinen T, Mäki-Torkko N, Järvisalo MJ, Uhari M, Jokinen E, Rönnemaa T, Åkerblom HK, Viikari JS (2003) Cardiovascular risk factors in childhood and carotid artery intima-media thickness in adulthood: the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study. JAMA 290:2277–2283
Smith DG, Hart C, Hole D, MacKinnon P, Gillis C, Watt G, Blane D, Hawthorne V (1998) Education and occupational social class: which is the more important indicator of mortality risk? J Epidemiol Community Health 52:153–160
Sourander A, Elonheimo H, Niemelä S, Nuutila A, Helenius H, Sillanmäki L, Piha J, Tamminen T, Kumpulainen K, Moilanen I, Almqvist F (2006) Childhood predictors of male criminality: a prospective population-based follow-up study from age 8 to late adolescence. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 45:578–586
Sourander A, Jensen P, Davies M, Niemelä S, Elonheimo H, Ristkari T, Helenius H, Sillanmäki L, Piha J, Kumpulainen K, Tamminen T, Moilanen I, Almqvist F (2007) Who is at greatest risk of adverse long-term outcomes? The Finnish from a boy to a man study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 46:1148–1161
Stansfeld SA, Clark C, Rodgers B, Caldwell T, Power C (2008) Childhood and adulthood socio-economic position and midlife depressive and anxiety disorders. Br J Psychiatry 192:152–153
Stansfeld SA, Clark C, Rodgers B, Caldwell T, Power C (2011) Repeated exposure to socioeconomic disadvantage and health selection as life course pathways to mid-lide depressive and anxiety disorders. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 46(7):549–558
Tremblay RE, Masselink B (1992) Early disruptive behavior, poor school achievement, delinquent behavior, and delinquent. J Consult Clin Psychol 60:64
Vitaro F, Brendgen M, Larose S, Trembaly RE (2005) Kindergarten disruptive behaviors, protective factors, and educational achievement by early adulthood. J Educ Psychol 97:617–629
Wells E (1980) Behavioral patterns of children in school. Vitality Health Statistics 77(113)
Wilson SJ, Lipsey MW (2007) School-based interventions for aggressive and disruptive behavior: update of a meta-analysis. Am J Prev Med 33:S130–S143
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by Alfred Kordelin’s Foundation (S. A.), Finnish Cultural Foundation, Päijät-Häme Regional fund (S. A.), Oskar Öflund’s Foundation (S. A.), The Academy of Finland (grant 124399 for L. K. –J. and Grant 123621 for L. P. -R.), The Research Funds of the University of Helsinki (L. P. -R.), Emil Aaltonen Foundation (M. H.) and Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation (M. H).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Alatupa, S., Pulkki-Råback, L., Hintsanen, M. et al. Disruptive behavior in childhood and socioeconomic position in adulthood: a prospective study over 27 years. Int J Public Health 58, 247–256 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0408-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0408-3