Abstract
Purpose: To examine associations between offending trajectory in adolescence/young adulthood and mental health outcomes in adulthood.
Methods: Data were used from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a longitudinal birth cohort studied to age 35. Latent trajectory models were fitted to conduct problems and offending data from ages 8 to 21. Outcome measures included measures of DSM-IV major depression and anxiety disorders during the periods 21-25, 25-30, and 30-35 years. Associations between trajectory groups and mental health were adjusted for a series of childhood/adolescent sociodemographic, family functioning, and individual characteristics. In addition, the associations were adjusted for the mediating effects of life circumstances in adulthood, including substance use disorders, life stress, police contacts, and partner deviance.
Results: The bivariate associations showed clear linkages between offending and major depression and anxiety disorder in adulthood, which were reduced in magnitude following control for childhood and adolescent covariate factors. Finally, the analyses showed that these residual associations were largely mediated by adult life circumstances.
Conclusions: The results suggest that offending in adolescence/early adulthood is a risk marker for later mental health disorders, but that the causal role of offending in later mental health problems is likely to be relatively weak.