K. Kokko et L. Pulkkinen, Aggression in childhood and long-term unemployment in adulthood: A cycle of maladaptation and some protective factors, DEVEL PSYCH, 36(4), 2000, pp. 463-472
The present study was designed to shed light on specific risk mechanisms an
d protective factors in the relation between aggression in childhood and lo
ng-term unemployment in adulthood. Participants were drawn from the ongoing
Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development; data g
athered at the ages of 8 (N = 369), 14, 27, and 36 years (n = 311) were use
d in the present study. Teacher-rated aggression at age 8 was related to su
bsequent long-term unemployment through a cycle of maladaptation. Specifica
lly, childhood aggression predicted school maladjustment at age 14, which w
as both directly and indirectly (via problem drinking and lack of occupatio
nal alternatives at age 27) related to long-term unemployment. Child-center
ed parenting and prosocial tendencies in an aggressive child significantly
lowered his or her probability of becoming long-term unemployed in adulthoo
d.