14 DAY TRIAL // A new scientific study reveals that individuals who were delinquents as children tend to have a higher chance of dying prematurely, or becoming more unstable later on in life, after the age of 48. The researchers behind the new investigation also said that the correlations were not necessary the obvious consequences of the antisocial behavior that these people exhibited. The paper is the first to analyze the influences that these factors have 40 years later, and also the first to consider parental factors alongside the test subjects' own behavior. Details appear in the December issue of the Journal of Public Health.
“We were surprised to see such a strong link between these early influences and premature death and this indicates that things that happen in families at age 8-10 are part of a progression towards dying prematurely,” the Director of the Wales-based Cardiff University Violence and Society Research Group, Professor Jonathan Shepherd, says. He is also the leader of the new study. “It was also surprising that the increase was not limited to substance abuse or other mental health problems known to be linked with an antisocial lifestyle, but included premature death and disability from a wide variety of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer,” the scientist adds. He explains that regularly skipping school or being rated troublesome and dishonest by teachers and parents were considered to be among the antisocial behaviors that could influence the long-term development of a child younger than ten.
“At this point, we don't know exactly why delinquency increases the risk of premature death and disability in middle age, but it seems that impulsivity – or lack of self-control – in childhood and adolescence was a common underlying theme. It may be that the stresses and strains of an antisocial lifestyle and having to deal with all the crises that could have been avoided with more self-control take their toll. It fits with the biological evidence of the effects of chronic stress on illness,” the expert says. The new data are part of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, a long-term investigation that aims at following a group of 411 boys, who exhibited signs of delinquency early on in life.
“These findings indicate that by intervening in the development of delinquency we may be able to achieve more than a reduction in the likelihood of later offending, which is currently the goal of such interventions,” Professor Shepherd concludes.