Mid-life outcomes of young people’s antisocial behaviour: the role of developmental heterogeneity across childhood and adolescence

Background: Antisocial behaviour (ASB) is relatively common in childhood and adolescence. While it harms victims, perpetrators are at increased risk of disadvantageous adult outcomes. Developmental heterogeneity is well documented; distinctions have been drawn between early onset persistent, adolescent-onset and childhood-limited pathways. We examine whether individuals in some pathways face worse mid-life outcomes than others and whether the pattern differs across sexes.

Methods: The 1970 British Cohort Study assessed parent-reported ASB measures at ages 5, 10 and 16. We classified developmental pathways using the Rutter A scale conduct questions. We categorized children scoring in the top 10% of the distribution as showing high ASB, separately at each assessment. Approximately 6000 individuals were classified into low (73%), childhood-limited (11%), adolescent-onset (9%) and early onset persistent (7%) groups. We tested associations of ASB grouping with age 46 social, economic and health outcomes, controlling for a range of covariates.

Results: The childhood-limited group showed little mid-life difficulty. The early onset persistent and adolescent-onset groups both showed a pattern of worse midlife outcomes for boys and girls.

Conclusions: The results highlight that ASB in young people is not transient and that prevention and treatment during early childhood and adolescence are warranted.