School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia.
Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australa.
Dev Psychol. 2018 Jul;54(7):1219-1231. doi: 10.1037/dev0000521. Epub 2018 Apr 5.
There is evidence that children of incarcerated parents are at risk of poor developmental and educational outcomes. However, much of this evidence is limited by biased samples, as studies must rely on opt-in recruitment. Administrative data present an opportunity to overcome this challenge, as they capture information on all incarcerated individuals. This study used administrative data on convictions of the parents of 19,071 children aged 5-6 years in Western Australia. Records of parental convictions (starting from 1 year prior to the child's birth) were linked to children's scores on the Australian Early Development Census, which is a teacher-reported measure of children's physical, social, emotional, communicative, and cognitive development. Logistic regression models estimated the odds of children of convicted parents being developmentally vulnerable. Models were adjusted for child, parent, and neighborhood sociodemographic factors. Compared to children in the comparison group, children whose parent had either served a community order or been incarcerated were at risk of poor development across all developmental domains, even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Furthermore, children of incarcerated parents had higher odds of developmental vulnerability on multiple domains compared to children of parents who had served community orders only. The results suggest that, although children of convicted parents experience a higher incidence of sociodemographic risk, their parents' criminal activity constitutes an independent risk factor for their development. Intervention to support the early development of children of convicted parents is therefore essential, and should consider the family context. (PsycINFO Database Record
有证据表明，父母入狱的儿童面临不良发育和教育结果的风险。然而，由于研究必须依赖于自愿报名，因此这种证据在很大程度上受到了有偏差的样本的限制。行政数据提供了克服这一挑战的机会，因为它们可以捕捉到所有被监禁者的信息。本研究使用了西澳大利亚州 19071 名 5-6 岁儿童父母定罪的行政数据。父母定罪记录（从孩子出生前一年开始）与儿童在澳大利亚早期发展普查中的得分相关联，该普查是教师报告的儿童身体、社会、情感、交际和认知发展的衡量标准。逻辑回归模型估计了有犯罪父母的儿童发育脆弱的可能性。模型调整了儿童、父母和邻里社会人口统计学因素。与对照组的儿童相比，即使在调整了社会人口统计学因素后，父母一方被判社区令或监禁的儿童在所有发育领域都面临发育不良的风险。此外，与仅被判社区令的父母的子女相比，父母入狱的子女在多个领域存在发育脆弱的可能性更高。结果表明，尽管被判有罪的父母的子女经历更高的社会人口统计学风险，但他们父母的犯罪活动构成了他们发育的独立风险因素。因此，支持犯罪父母子女早期发展的干预措施至关重要，并且应该考虑到家庭环境。
