title: Younger or older parental age and risk of suicidality, premature death, psychiatric illness, and criminality in offspring.
abstract: Younger or older parental age has been linked with a range of adverse offspring endpoints. We investigated associations between parental age and nine adverse offspring outcomes in three correlated domains: (i) Premature death: suicide, unnatural death, natural death; (ii) Psychiatric morbidity: any mental illness, suicide attempt, substance misuse; (iii) Criminality: violent offending, imprisonment, driving whilst intoxicated.
  
  
  
  Persons born in Denmark 1966-1996 were followed from their 15th until 40th birthday or December 2011 (N=1,793,681). Incidence rate ratios were estimated.
  
  
  
  Offspring of teenage mothers had the greatest risks for all nine adverse outcomes, especially for imprisonment, violent offending, substance misuse, and attempted suicide. Teenage fatherhood was also associated with elevated risks for offspring adverse psychiatric and criminality outcomes, but not premature mortality (at ages 15-39 years). For the psychiatric and criminality outcomes there was a U-shape trend linked with paternal age, but risks for premature mortality tended to increase with rising paternal age. On the contrary, maternal age 30 years and over was not linked with raised risks for any of the outcomes examined.
  
  
  
  Parental links are based on legal and not biological relationships.
  
  
  
  The substantially elevated risks linked with teenage motherhood for a variety of poor offspring outcomes is a concern for clinicians and policymakers. The associations observed across such a wide array of adverse outcomes also suggest that multiple causal mechanisms may be implicated.
authors: Centre for Mental Health and Safety, University of Manchester, Jean McFarlane Building, Oxford Road, M13 9PL Manchester, England.
authors: Pearl L H
authors: PLH
authors: Mok
authors: Centre for Integrated Register-based Research, CIRRAU, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; National Centre for Register-Based Research, Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus, Fuglesangs Alle 4, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark.
authors: Sussie
authors: S
authors: Antonsen
authors: Centre for Integrated Register-based Research, CIRRAU, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; National Centre for Register-Based Research, Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus, Fuglesangs Alle 4, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark.
authors: Carsten Bøcker
authors: CB
authors: Pedersen
authors: Centre for Mental Health and Safety, University of Manchester, Jean McFarlane Building, Oxford Road, M13 9PL Manchester, England. Electronic address: roger.webb@manchester.ac.uk.
authors: Roger T
authors: RT
authors: Webb
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D000066479:Criminal Behavior; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D061213:Mortality, Premature; D010331:Paternal Age; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Criminality; Maternal age; Paternal age; Premature mortality; Psychiatric disorder; Suicidality