Adolescent predictors of adult social and psychiatric adversities:a prospective follow-up study of the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort

• Main Author: Riala, K. (Kaisa)
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Oulu 2004
• Subjects: adolescent; educational status; family characteristics; schizophrenia; smoking; substance use; Northern Finland
• Online Access: http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9514274954

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate, using a longitudinal design, the possible long-term effects of adolescent family background, school performance and substance use on educational performance, psychiatric disorders and substance use related problems during adulthood. A large, prospectively collected general population birth cohort (n = 11017), the Northern Finland 1966 Birth cohort, was used as study population. The database provided information on features of the primary family. The information on the cohort members’ school performance, smoking, alcohol use and other substance use was obtained from a questionnaire mailed to the cohort members in 1980. Also information on school performance in various school subjects was obtained at the end of compulsory schooling at the age of 16. The level of education by the age of 31 was gathered from the national Registry of Educational Statistics in Finland. The relevant data for drunk driving offences were collected from the Ministry of Justice files. The Finnish Hospital Discharge Register was used to identify all hospital-treated psychiatric patients. Parental divorce increased the risk of adult educational underachievement. Other family background factors such as unwanted pregnancy, low maternal education and large family size were also associated with low adult educational performance. A history of drunk driving offences was associated both with impaired school performance in adolescence and with educational underachievement in early adulthood. Adolescent regular alcohol use, smoking and other substance use increased the risk for drunk driving offences and hospital-treated substance use disorders in adulthood. The smoking rate among psychiatric patients was about 1.5 times higher than among control subjects without psychiatric hospital treatment. The proportion of smokers was about 50% among subjects with schizophrenia. The initiation age of regular smoking was closely related to the age of onset of schizophrenia, but not to other mental disorders. ...