While a large literature documents how mental health problems in adolescence have long-term consequences for adult socioeconomic outcomes, less is known about the relation with family-formation behavior. In this paper, we use data from a population based Norwegian health survey (the Young-HUNT study) linked to administrative registry data (N = 8,113) to examine the long-term consequences of symptoms of internalizing and externalizing problems, the two most common forms of mental health problems, on family-formation outcomes: the likelihood of a first birth, the union status of a first birth, and entering first marriage. For men, externalizing problems are associated with earlier parenthood, especially becoming a father without having a coresidential relationship with the child’s mother. Internalizing problems, on the other hand, are associated with lower first-birth rates and the association grows progressively stronger with age. We also find that the associations are more pronounced among men with low childhood socioeconomic status. In contrast, women’s family-formation appears for the most part unrelated to their mental health.

尽管大量文献记录了青春期的心理健康问题如何对成年人的社会经济后果产生长期影响，但人们对与家庭形成行为的关系知之甚少。在本文中，我们使用基于人口的挪威健康调查（Young-HUNT研究）中的数据与行政登记数据（N = 8,113）相关联，以检查内部和外部问题的症状的长期后果，这是两种最常见的问题家庭结局对心理健康问题的影响形式：初生的可能性，初生的婚姻状况以及初婚。对于男人来说，外在的问题与更早的父母身份有关，特别是在没有与孩子的母亲同居的情况下成为父亲。另一方面，内部化问题 与较低的第一胎出生率相关，并且随着年龄的增长，该相关性逐渐增强。我们还发现，这种关系在儿童社会经济地位低下的男性中更为明显。相比之下，妇女的家庭构成在很大程度上与她们的心理健康无关。