title: Childhood bullying and becoming a young father in a national cohort of Finnish boys.
abstract: Childhood bullying is known to be associated with various adverse psychosocial outcomes in later life. No studies exist on its association with becoming a young father. The study is based on a national cohort, which included 2,946 Finnish boys at baseline in 1989. Information on bullying was collected from children, their parents and their teachers. Follow-up data on becoming a father under the age of 22 were collected from a nationwide register. The follow-up sample included 2,721 boys. Bullying other children frequently was significantly associated with becoming a young father independently of being victimized, childhood psychiatric symptoms and parental educational level. Being a victim of bullying was not associated with becoming a young father when adjusted for possible confounders. When the co-occurrence of bullying and victimization was studied, it was found that being a bully-victim, but not a pure bully or a pure victim, is significantly associated with becoming a young father. This study adds to other studies, which have shown that the risk profile and relational patterns of bully-victims differ from those of other children, and it emphasizes the importance of including peer relationships when studying young fathers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Turku, Itäinen Pitkäkatu 1, Varia, Finland. venla.lehti@utu.fi
authors.forename: Venla
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lehti
authors.forename: Anat Brunstein
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Klomek
authors.forename: Tuula
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tamminen
authors.forename: Irma
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Moilanen
authors.forename: Kirsti
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kumpulainen
authors.forename: Jorma
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Piha
authors.forename: Fredrik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Almqvist
authors.forename: Andre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sourander
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D058445:Bullying / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010379:Peer Group; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult