are associated with future partnership difficulties, including intimate partner violence and lower relationship satisfaction. We were interested in whether common childhood behaviors — including prosocial traits — would predict future partnership stability for children without clinical diagnoses.
Our study was based on analysis of nearly 3,000 Canadian children who were rated by teachers for behaviors like inattention, hyperactivity, aggression, opposition, anxiety, and prosociality at age 10, 11, and 12 years and then followed up into adulthood so we could examine their anonymized tax return records.
Since Canadian tax regulations require people who are married or cohabiting to report this status in their tax returns, we were able to statistically identify groups of participants who followed common patterns of partnering. We then linked them with their earlier behavioral ratings.
Participants in the unpartnered and separated groups fared poorly in other ways too: they were more likely to have left high school without a diploma, to have lower earnings, and to be in receipt of welfare support. This raises important questions about what underlying factors might explain the link between childhood behavior and future partnering patterns.Childhood behavior could influence future partnering directly and indirectly.