Childhood bullying and becoming a young father in a national cohort of Finnish boys.

Lehti, V., Brunstein Klomek, A., Tamminen, T., Moilanen, I., Kumpulainen, K., Piha, J., Almqvist. F. & Sourander, A. (2012). Childhood bullying and becoming a young father in a national cohort of Finnish boys. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. Childhood bullying is known to be associated with various adverse psychosocial outcomes in later life. No studies exist on its association with becoming a young father. The study is based on a national cohort, which included 2,946 Finnish boys at baseline in 1989. Information on bullying was collected from children, their parents and their teachers. Follow-up data on becoming a father under the age of 22 were collected from a nationwide register. The follow-up sample included 2,721 boys. Bullying other children frequently was significantly associated with becoming a young father independently of being victimized, childhood psychiatric symptoms and parental educational level. Being a victim of bullying was not associated with becoming a young father when adjusted for possible confounders. When the co-occurrence of bullying and victimization was studied, it was found that being a bully-victim, but not a pure bully or a pure victim, is significantly associated with becoming a young father. This study adds to other studies, which have shown that the risk profile and relational patterns of bully-victims differ from those of other children, and it emphasizes the importance of including peer relationships when studying young fathers. © 2012 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2012 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.