Katja Kokko

Aggression in childhood and long-term unemployment in adulthood: A cycle of maladaptation and some protective factors.

The present study was designed to shed light on specific risk mechanisms and protective factors in the relation between aggression in childhood and long-term unemployment in adulthood. Participants were drawn from the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development; data gathered at the ages of 8 (N = 369), 14, 27, and 36 years (n = 311) were used in the present study. Teacher-rated aggression at age 8 was related to subsequent long-term unemployment through a cycle of maladaptation. Specifically, childhood aggression predicted school maladjustment at age 14, which was both directly and indirectly (via problem drinking and lack of occupational alternatives at age 27) related to long-term unemployment. Child-centered parenting and prosocial tendencies in an aggressive child significantly lowered his or her probability of becoming long-term unemployed in adulthood.

Selection into long-term unemployment and its psychological consequences

The factors which predict a person’s long-term unemployment were studied within the framework of an emotional and behavioural regulation model consisting of two orthogonal dimensions: behavioural inhibition versus expression, and low versus high self-control of emotions (Pulkkinen, 1995, 1996). The participants were drawn from the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, in which the same individuals have been followed up from age 8 (n = 369) to 36 (n = 311). In the present study, data collected at ages 8, 14, 27, and 36 were used. The findings showed that low self-control of emotions, especially aggression, at age 8 directly predicted long-term unemployment in adulthood, whereas behavioural inhibition (passive and anxious behaviour) predicted long-term unemployment indirectly (via poor educational attainment). Long-term unemployment in adulthood was related to an increased level of current psychological distress as measured by the presence of depressive symptoms and anxiety. Thus, the present study confirmed both the hypothesis concerning selection into unemployment, and the hypothesis concerning the psychological consequences of unemployment.

Life success of males on nonoffender, adolescence-limited, persistent, and adult-onset antisocial pathways: follow-up from age 8 to 42

A random sample of 196 males, drawn from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, was divided into four groups of offenders using information from government registers of convictions between ages 21 and 47, from local police registers searched at age 21, from a Self-Report Delinquency Scale administered at age 36, from a Life History Calendar for ages 15-42, and from personal interviews at ages 27, 36, and 42. The groups were: persistent offenders (offences before and after age 21; 29% of the men); adolescence-limited offenders (offences before age 21; 27%); adult-onset offenders (offences after age 21; 16%); and nonoffenders (28%). The profile of the persistent offenders included many characteristics of antisocial personality and problems of social and psychological functioning at all ages. In childhood and adolescence, the adolescence-limited offenders tended to display higher self-control than the other offenders indicated by less negative emotionality and higher constraint. In early middle age, they were well established in terms of work and marriage, but they differed from the nonoffenders in higher neuroticism, aggressiveness, and psychosomatic symptoms as did the other offender groups. The adult-onset offenders displayed an emotionally unstable personality, and in adulthood, they tended to be heavy users of alcohol. Parental SES did not differentiate the groups, but the parents of the persistent offenders tended to use alcohol heavily, and the social capital of the family tended to be low compared with the other groups.

Identity Processes in Adulthood: Diverging Domains

Patterns of identity formation were analyzed in a longitudinal framework, from ages 27 to 36 and then to 42 years of age. Information from all 3 ages was available for 197 participants (100 women, 97 men). A variation of Marcias (1966) Identity Status Interview included 5 domains: religious beliefs, political identity, occupational career, intimate relationships, and lifestyle. Great variability in identity status assessments was found across the domains at each age level. The domains representing work and family (occupation, relationships, and lifestyle) were more salient for middle-aged adults than were ideological domains (religion and politics). Development along the hypothesized sequence (from diffusion toward achievement) was the most frequent trajectory for all domains, except for political identity, where regression was predominant. Most notably, at age 42, one third of the individuals who were foreclosed or achieved in 3 out of 5 identity domains were diffused in political identity, and one fourth were diffused in religious identity.

The Role of Family Background, School Success, and Career Orientation in the Development of Sense of Coherence

Abstract. This study investigates family background (child-centered parenting, parental socioeconomic status), school success in adolescence, and career orientation (education, stability of career line) in adulthood as antecedents of adult sense of coherence (SOC; Antonovsky, 1987a), which has been posited to be a disposition crucial to understanding individual differences in successful coping with stress. Participants (104 men and 98 women) were drawn from the ongoing Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (JYLS), which was started when the participants were 8- or 9-year-old children (in 1968). Data gathered at ages 14, 27, 36, and 42 were used in this study. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that child-centered parenting in adolescence and a stable career line in adulthood were directly associated with a high SOC at age 42. In addition, child-centered parenting, high parental socioeconomic status, and school success at age 14 were indirectly associat...

Unemployment and psychological distress: Mediator effects.

The study concerned possible mediators and moderators in the relationship between unemployment and psychological distress. The sample consisted of 58 unemployed and 177 employed 36-year-old Finnish people drawn from the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development. Data were gathered by means of a mailed questionnaire, a semistructured interview, and personality inventories. The results showed that poor economic situation, and poor self-esteem as measured by Rosenbergs Self-Esteem Scale, mediated the relationship between unemployment and psychological distress even after controlling for the prior level of self-esteem. Psychological distress was defined as psychological ill-health (the General Health Questionnaire), depressive symptoms (the General Behavior Inventory), and anxiety (the Karolinska Scales of Personality). However, support was also found for an alternative model, in which depressive symptoms functioned as a mediator between long unemployment and poor self-esteem, suggesting that individuals may react to unemployment in different ways.

Prosocial Development from Childhood to Adolescence: A Multi-Informant Perspective with Canadian and Italian Longitudinal Studies.

OBJECTIVES To longitudinally describe prosocial behaviour development from childhood to adolescence, using multiple informants within Canadian and Italian samples. METHOD Participants in Study 1 were 1037 boys from low socioeconomic status (SES) areas in Montreal, Canada, for whom yearly teacher and mother reports were obtained between the ages of 10 and 15. Participants in Study 2 were 472 children (209 girls) from Genzano, Italy, for whom yearly self and teacher reports were obtained between the ages of 10 and 14. Developmental trajectories were estimated from ratings by each informant to identify subgroups of children following distinct courses of prosocial development. RESULTS In Study 1, three trajectory groups (low/declining 53%, high/declining 16%, high/steep declining 31%) were identified from teacher ratings, while five trajectories (low/stable 7%, low/declining 19%, moderate/stable 41%, high/declining 24%, high/stable 9%) were identified from mother ratings. Small but significant associations were observed between mother and teacher ratings. In Study 2, three trajectory groups (low/stable 9%, moderate/stable 50%, high/stable 42%) were identified from self-ratings, while four trajectory groups (low/stable 8%, moderate/declining 48%, high/declining 37%, increasing 7%) were identified from teacher ratings. Small but significant associations were observed between self- and teacher ratings. CONCLUSIONS The present studies investigated levels of prosocial behaviours from childhood to adolescence, using a multi-informant, cross-cultural perspective. All but one of the developmental trajectories identified were characterised by stable or declining levels of prosocial behaviours. Further research longitudinally investigating prosociality across developmental periods is needed to clarify prosocial behaviour development over time.

Child personality characteristics and selection into long-term unemployment in Finnish and Swedish longitudinal samples

The main aim of the present study was to test a model of selection into long-term unemployment obtained for a sample of 36-year-old Finns (Kokko, Pulkkinen, & Puustinen, 2000) to see whether it similarly explained long-term unemployment among 26- to 27-year-old Finns and Swedes. The participants were drawn from two ongoing longitudinal studies: the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (conducted in Finland) and the Individual Development and Adaptation study (conducted in Sweden). At both ages, that is 36 and 26–27, low education was related to long-term unemployment, and explained by personality characteristics in middle childhood, such as low self-control of emotions or conduct problems, and behavioural inhibition or timidity. However, while low self-control of emotions additionally explained long-term unemployment among the 36-year-olds directly, in both the young samples personality characteristics showed only indirect effects through poor educational attainment. At age 26–27, childhood personality characteristics explained selection onto an educational track rather than selection into long-term unemployment, and length of education explained duration of unemployment.

Successful Development: Childhood Antecedents of Adaptive Psychosocial Functioning in Adulthood

The study was part of the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development. Data on developmental background for 131 women and 130 men consisted of variables for (1) emotion regulation at age 8, (2) cognitive–motivational orientation at age 14, and (3) family circumstances, and data on adult outcomes for variables concerning psychosocial functioning at age 36. Links between the childhood and adulthood variables were investigated using the LISREL model which consisted of two parts, the measurement model and the structural equation model. Two correlating latent factors emerged from adult outcomes for men and women: Social Functioning, consisting of external criteria for successful development (stability of career line, controlled drinking, socialization) and Psychological Functioning, consisting of internal criteria (self-esteem and psychological well-being). Only Social Functioning was explained by developmental background. High emotion regulation in childhood was a more robust antecedent of good social functioning in men than in women.

Implications of Timing of Entering Adulthood for Identity Achievement

Five external markers of adulthood, self-perceived adulthood at age 27, and identity achievement at ages 27, 36, and 42 were explored for 95 women and 94 men in a cohort of Finns born in 1959. Earlier transition to adulthood in family life (moving from the parental home, entering marriage or cohabitation, having a child) anticipated higher identity achievement in adulthood. However, later transition to adulthood in working life, composed of the first certification conferral, and entering a full-time job were associated with higher identity achievement. Both components correlated with the higher level and thus the length of education. Self-perceived adulthood was unrelated to the age of achieving external markers of adulthood but was positively associated with identity achievement in women.