This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (2)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Adolescent Medicine  • Pediatrics, Other  • Psychiatry  • Violence and Human Rights  • Alert me on articles by topic

The Finnish From a Boy to a Man Study

Andre Sourander, MD; Peter Jensen, MD; John A. Rönning, PhD; Henrik Elonheimo, LLM; Solja Niemelä, MD; Hans Helenius, MSc; Kirsti Kumpulainen, MD; Jorma Piha, MS; Tuula Tamminen, MD; Irma Moilanen, MD; Fredrik Almqvist, MD

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(6):546-552.

Objective  To study correlations of childhood bullying and victimization with juvenile criminality.

Design  Longitudinal birth cohort study from age 8 years to ages 16 to 20 years.

Setting  Population-based study from Finland.

Participants  The sample comprised 2551 boys (86.6% of the original birth cohort) with complete information about bullying and victimization from parents, teachers, and children at age 8 years.

Main Outcome Measure  Information about criminal offenses from the National Police Register at ages 16 to 20 years.

Results  Frequent bullies and those who frequently both bullied and were bullied (8.8% of the sample) were responsible for 33.0% of all juvenile crimes during the 4-year study period. Frequent bully-only status predicted both occasional and repeated offending, whereas bully-victim status predicted repeated offending. Bullying predicted most types of crime (violence, property, drunk driving, and traffic offenses) when controlled with parental education level. However, frequent bullies or victims without a high level of psychiatric symptoms were not at an elevated risk for later criminality.

Conclusions  Boys who frequently bully are at risk for later criminality when this condition is accompanied by a high level of psychiatric symptoms. Frequent bullies should be actively screened for psychiatric problems.

Author Affiliations: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY (Drs Sourander and Jensen); Institute of Clinical Medicine (Dr Sourander) and Department of Pediatrics (Dr Rönning), Tromsö University, Tromsö, Norway; Department of Child Psychiatry (Dr Sourander) and Faculty of Law (Mr Elonheimo), Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, Finland; Departments of Child Psychiatry (Dr Niemelä and Mr Piha) and Biostatistics (Mr Helenius), Turku University, Turku, Finland; Department of Child Psychiatry, Kuopio University, Kuopio, Finland (Dr Kumpulainen); Department of Child Psychiatry, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland (Dr Tamminen); Department of Child Psychiatry, Oulu University, Oulu, Finland (Dr Moilanen); and Department of Child Psychiatry, Helsinki University, Helsinki, Finland (Dr Almqvist).

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Contribution of violence to health inequalities in England: demographics and trends in emergency hospital admissions for assault
Bellis et al.
J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2008;62:1064-1071.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Editorial: Bullying as a Public Health Issue
Feder
Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol 2007;51:491-494.
 

What Is the Early Adulthood Outcome of Boys Who Bully or Are Bullied in Childhood? The Finnish "From a Boy to a Man" Study
Sourander et al.
Pediatrics 2007;120:397-404.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT