From Hardship to Harm: Childhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Adolescent Antisocial Outcomes in Three UK Cohorts

Low socioeconomic position (SEP) in childhood is associated with antisocial outcomes in adolescence, yet this relationship appears to be changing over time. Investigating these changes requires consistent data from different cohorts, which is frequently unavailable. However, retrospective harmonization allows data to be modified so they are directly comparable, and we used this approach to study the changing relationship between SEP and antisocial outcomes across three UK birth cohorts. This study used harmonized adolescent antisocial outcomes including self-reported offending, school exclusion, truancy, policy contact, and victimization from cohorts born in 1970 (BCS70), the 1990s (ALSPAC), and the 2000s (MCS). Regression models predicting antisocial outcomes from SEP latent classes and sociodemographic covariates were estimated. The most disadvantaged SEP latent class was associated with school exclusion and truancy in the BCS70 and MCS. The disadvantaged class was also significantly associated with robbery in the BCS70, and police contact in the MCS. In the ALSPAC, victimization was the only outcome associated with the disadvantaged class. Self-reported offending behaviours were not strongly related to SEP; however, school exclusions and truancy were related to disadvantage in both the BCS70 and MCS. Although there were qualitative differences in the relationships observed across cohorts, it appears that the strength of the association between SEP and antisocial outcomes may be stronger in the BCS70 and MCS.