Parental Education and Adolescent Health Problems Due to Violence, Self-harm and Substance Use: What Is the Role of Parental Health Problems?

Hanna Remes , University of Helsinki
Heta Moustgaard, University of Helsinki
Laura Kestilä, National Institute for Public Health and Welfare
Pekka Martikainen, University of Helsinki

Adolescent health problems are more prevalent in families with low socioeconomic position, but few studies have assessed the role of parental health in this association. We used Finnish longitudinal population-representative register data with information on parental social background and parental and offspring health problems based on hospital discharge data. We estimated discrete-time survival models on hospital admissions due to violence, self-harm and substance use among adolescents aged 13-19 years in 2001-2011 (n=145 404). Hospital admissions were 2-3 times more common among offspring of basic educated parents than tertiary educated parents. Childhood experience of parental health problems, although more common among offspring of lower educated parents, explained less than 10% of the excess risk. The attenuation was mostly due to high-risk health behaviour-related parental health problems whereas mental and somatic health problems had a negligible impact. Having both low parental education and parental health problems showed simple cumulative effects.

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 Presented in Session 248. Determinants of Adolescent Health