Experience of maternal and paternal adversities in childhood as determinants of self-harm in adolescence and young adulthood

Abstract

IntroductionPrevious studies suggest that childhood experience of parental adversities increases the risk of subsequent offspring self-harm, but studies on distinct paternal and maternal characteristics are few and it remains unclear how these interact with childhood social position. The study aims to assess whether paternal and maternal adversities have different associations with offspring self-harm in adolescence and young adulthood. Interaction by offspring gender and childhood income are investigated, as well as cumulative effects of multiple adversities.MethodsThe study uses administrative register data on a 20% random sample of Finnish households with children aged 0–14 years in 2000. We follow children born in 1986–1998 (n=155 855) from their 13th birthday until 2011. Parental substance abuse, psychiatric disorders, criminality and hospitalisations due to interpersonal violence or self-harm are used to predict offspring self-harm with Cox proportional hazards models.ResultsThe results show a clear increase in the risk of self-harm among those exposed to maternal or paternal adversities with HRs between 1.5 and 5.4 among boys and 1.7 and 3.9 among girls. The excess risks hold for every measure of maternal and paternal adversities after adjusting for childhood income and parental education. Evidence was found suggesting that low income, accumulation of adversity and female gender may exacerbate the consequences of adversities.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that both parents’ adversities increase the risk of self-harm and that multiple experiences of parental adversities in childhood are especially harmful, regardless of parent gender. Higher levels of childhood income can protect from the negative consequences of adverse experiences.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Risk of Subsequently Engaging in Self-Harm and Violence Towards Other People – ‘Dual Harm’

“…[38] Finally, effects of childhood adversity are exacerbated by low socioeconomic position. [16,36] Our findings build upon a number of recently conducted studies. Parental death inferred increased risk of both self-harm and violent criminality [17] but we have shown that the risk of dual harm among children who lost a parent is even greater -especially death from external causes.…”

“…Parental and childhood adversity, and especially the accumulation of multiple adverse experiences, increase selfharm risk in young people. [5,36] Similarly, a large international study found that a range of childhood adverse experiences were strongly associated with all classes of mental disorders in adulthood. [37] A number of mechanisms are likely to be driving the higher likelihood of poor outcome.…”

Risk factors for nonsuicidal self-injury: A review of the evidence

“…39 Adolescents exposed to maternal or paternal adversities were also at a higher risk of self-harm (hazard ratio 1.5 to 5.4 among males, 1.7 to 3.9 among females). 40…”

The effect of low childhood income on self-harm in young adulthood: Mediation by adolescent mental health, behavioural factors and school performance

“…Moreover, adverse childhood experiences, such as parental mental health or substance abuse problems and family dissolutions, are more common in low-income households ( Halfon et al, 2017 ). These experiences are known to have an impact on adolescent mental health problems and self-harm ( Björkenstam et al, 2016a , 2016b ), and recent findings also suggest that the consequences of adverse experiences may be more detrimental in low-income households than in others ( Lanier et al, 2018 ; Pitkänen, Remes, Aaltonen, & Martikainen, 2019 ).…”