The effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: Mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performance
Low childhood income is an established risk factor of self-harm in adolescence and young adulthood, and childhood income is additionally associated with various correlates of self-harm. How these correlates, such as psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, violent behaviour and school problems, media...
Main Authors: | , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Elsevier
2021-03-01
|
Series: | SSM: Population Health |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827321000318 |
id |
doaj-56da5dbf665142a0b1f40181157cca95 |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-56da5dbf665142a0b1f40181157cca952021-04-02T04:50:51ZengElsevierSSM: Population Health2352-82732021-03-0113100756The effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: Mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performanceJoonas Pitkänen0Maarten J. Bijlsma1Hanna Remes2Mikko Aaltonen3Pekka Martikainen4Population Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 18, FIN-00014, Helsinki, Finland; International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany; Corresponding author. Population Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 18, FIN-00014, Helsinki, Finland.Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, GermanyPopulation Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 18, FIN-00014, Helsinki, FinlandInstitute of Criminology and Legal Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Law School. University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, FinlandPopulation Research Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 18, FIN-00014, Helsinki, Finland; Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany; Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University, SwedenLow childhood income is an established risk factor of self-harm in adolescence and young adulthood, and childhood income is additionally associated with various correlates of self-harm. How these correlates, such as psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, violent behaviour and school problems, mediate the effect of childhood income on self-harm, is less understood. The purpose of the current paper is to examine this mediation. The study is based on administrative register data on all Finnish children born in 1990–1995. An analytical sample of 384,121 children is followed from age 8 to 22. We apply the parametric g-formula to study the effect of childhood income on the risk of self-harm in young adulthood. Adolescent psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, prior self-harm, violent criminality and victimization, out-of-home placements, not being in education, employment or training and school performance are considered as potential mediators. We control for confounding factors related to childhood family characteristics. As a hypothetical intervention, we moved those in the lowest childhood income quintile to the second-lowest quintile, which resulted in a 7% reduction in hospital-presenting self-harm in young adulthood among those targeted by the intervention (2% reduction in the total population). 67% of the effect was mediated through the chosen mediators. The results indicate that increases in childhood material resources could protect from self-harm in young adulthood. Moreover, the large proportion of mediation suggests that targeted interventions for high-risk adolescents may be beneficial. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use the parametric g-formula to study youth self-harm. Future applications are encouraged as the method offers several further opportunities for analysing the complex life course pathways to self-harm.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827321000318Childhood incomeSelf-harmAdolescenceYoung adulthoodMediation analysisG-formula |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Joonas Pitkänen Maarten J. Bijlsma Hanna Remes Mikko Aaltonen Pekka Martikainen |
spellingShingle |
Joonas Pitkänen Maarten J. Bijlsma Hanna Remes Mikko Aaltonen Pekka Martikainen The effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: Mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performance SSM: Population Health Childhood income Self-harm Adolescence Young adulthood Mediation analysis G-formula |
author_facet |
Joonas Pitkänen Maarten J. Bijlsma Hanna Remes Mikko Aaltonen Pekka Martikainen |
author_sort |
Joonas Pitkänen |
title |
The effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: Mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performance |
title_short |
The effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: Mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performance |
title_full |
The effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: Mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performance |
title_fullStr |
The effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: Mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performance |
title_full_unstemmed |
The effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: Mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performance |
title_sort |
effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performance |
publisher |
Elsevier |
series |
SSM: Population Health |
issn |
2352-8273 |
publishDate |
2021-03-01 |
description |
Low childhood income is an established risk factor of self-harm in adolescence and young adulthood, and childhood income is additionally associated with various correlates of self-harm. How these correlates, such as psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, violent behaviour and school problems, mediate the effect of childhood income on self-harm, is less understood. The purpose of the current paper is to examine this mediation. The study is based on administrative register data on all Finnish children born in 1990–1995. An analytical sample of 384,121 children is followed from age 8 to 22. We apply the parametric g-formula to study the effect of childhood income on the risk of self-harm in young adulthood. Adolescent psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, prior self-harm, violent criminality and victimization, out-of-home placements, not being in education, employment or training and school performance are considered as potential mediators. We control for confounding factors related to childhood family characteristics. As a hypothetical intervention, we moved those in the lowest childhood income quintile to the second-lowest quintile, which resulted in a 7% reduction in hospital-presenting self-harm in young adulthood among those targeted by the intervention (2% reduction in the total population). 67% of the effect was mediated through the chosen mediators. The results indicate that increases in childhood material resources could protect from self-harm in young adulthood. Moreover, the large proportion of mediation suggests that targeted interventions for high-risk adolescents may be beneficial. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use the parametric g-formula to study youth self-harm. Future applications are encouraged as the method offers several further opportunities for analysing the complex life course pathways to self-harm. |
topic |
Childhood income Self-harm Adolescence Young adulthood Mediation analysis G-formula |
url |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827321000318 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT joonaspitkanen theeffectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance AT maartenjbijlsma theeffectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance AT hannaremes theeffectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance AT mikkoaaltonen theeffectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance AT pekkamartikainen theeffectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance AT joonaspitkanen effectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance AT maartenjbijlsma effectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance AT hannaremes effectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance AT mikkoaaltonen effectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance AT pekkamartikainen effectoflowchildhoodincomeonselfharminyoungadulthoodmediationbyadolescentmentalhealthbehaviouralfactorsandschoolperformance |
_version_ |
1724172934144065536 |