Troubled kids more likely to have problems as adults

William Atkins
Sunday, 18 January 2009 19:16

Science - Biology

Researchers from the United Kingdom found that children exhibiting behavioral problems, even minor ones, are much more likely to grow up to be adults with various problems involving money, personal relationships, and emotions.


The British Medical Journal published the article “Outcomes of conduct problems in adolescence: 40 year follow-up of national cohort” on January 8, 2009.

The authors included Canadian epidemiologist Ian Colman, of the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB, Canada), along with Joseph Murray, Rosemary A.Abbott, Barbara Maughan, Diana Kuh, Tim J. Croudace, and Peter B. Jones.

The original goal of their study was “To describe long term outcomes associated with externalising behaviour in adolescence, defined in this study as conduct problems reported by a teacher, in a population based sample.”

They studied 3,652 early-aged teenagers who had been identified by their teachers between the ages of 13 and 15 years as having “symptoms of externalizing behavior"; that is, having serious emotional, mental, or behavioral problems and/or disturbances.

The researchers analyzed the data taken over a 40-year period (until the participants were 36 to 53 years of age).

Dr. Colman, the lead author of the study, used data from the 1946 British Birth Cohort survey.

Page two contains specifics about the study, along with quotes from the Colman-led study.