Abstract
The proportion of single-parent families has increased in the last few decades
world-wide, mostly due to high divorce rates. Also in Finland growing numbers of children
spend part of their childhood in single-parent families. The aim of this study was to
investigate in a longitudinal perspective, the possible long-term effects of the childhood
family structure on psychological, physical and criminal outcomes of an offspring during
adulthood.
A large, prospectively collected general population birth cohort (n= 11 017),
the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, was used as a study population. This database
provided the information on childhood family structure of cohort members with additional
information of sociodemographic factors of the family and of the child. Information
concerning physical and psychiatric illnesses were gathered from the Finnish Hospital
Discharge Register (FHDR). Death certificates and the information from national crime
registers were also obtained.
Females with a single-parent family background were more commonly
hospital-treated (61.3 % vs. 56.7 %) for any physical condition than females with a
two-parent family background. For males such difference in overall physical illness was not
found. Both females and males from single-parent families had more commonly been
hospital-treated for some diagnoses in the ICD-category of "injury and poisoning"
than had
other cohort members. Furthermore, females from single-parent families had also more
commonly been treated due to pregnancy-related conditions such as induced abortions. During
the follow-up time (16 to 28 years of age) 117 (90 males, 27 females) cohort members had
died. Males with single-parent family background exhibited an increased mortality risk,
especially due to suicides (OR=2.5, 95% CI 1.1-5.8, adjusted for psychiatric hospital
diagnosis, parental social class).
Criminality was more common among both males and females from single-parent
families compared with other cohort members. The results showed that the risk of violent
offending and recidivism was increased up to 8-fold if the cohort male member had been born
and raised in a single-mother family over most of his childhood. Parental divorce also
doubled the risk for both violent and recidivistic offending. Non-violent offences among
males were associated only with parental death and divorce. Furthermore, drunk driving was
more common among both males and females with single-parent background. Males who were born
into single-mother families were at the highest risk of drunk driving offences in adulthood
(OR=2.4, 95% CI 1.4-4.2, adjusted for maternal age, psychiatric hospital diagnosis, parental
social class).
In this study it was shown that young adults with single-parent families in
childhood experienced a more stressful pathway from late adolescence to adulthood. However,
most of the offspring of single-parent families did well during the follow-up time.
Strategies to promote the well-being of children and adolescents in single-parent families
are of prime importance for preventive health care.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:oulo.fi/oai:oulu.fi:isbn951-42-5941-6 |
| Date | 27 March 2001 |
| Creators | Sauvola, A. (Anu) |
| Publisher | University of Oulu |
| Source Sets | University of Oulu |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess, © University of Oulu, 2001 |
| Relation | info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pissn/0355-3221, info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/1796-2234 |
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