Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, The University of Texas at San Antonio (A Testa), San Antoinio, Tex.
Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University (DB Jackson), Baltimore, Md.
Acad Pediatr. 2021 Apr;21(3):534-541. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2020.08.016. Epub 2020 Aug 27.
Research has documented several collateral consequences of parental incarceration for the development of children. However, there is limited research on how experiencing parental incarceration impacts the school readiness of preschool-aged children. This study examines the relationship between parental incarceration and school readiness among 3- to 5-year-old children in the United States.
The current study employs data from 2016 to 2018 National Survey of Children's Health. The measure of school readiness is comprised of the following 4 domains: early learning skills, self-regulation, social-emotional development, and physical health & motor development. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the extent to which children were on-track across these key school readiness domains.
Parental incarceration is associated with a reduction in the predicted probability of being on-track across all 4 domains. Furthermore, while only about 1 in 33 children without incarcerated parents will be on-track in none of the domains, approximately 1 in 6 children experiencing parental incarceration will be on-track in none of the domains. Ancillary analyses reveal that these results largely hold across items in each school readiness domain.
Using a novel measure of school readiness, the current study finds parental incarceration is associated with reduced school readiness of preschool-aged children in the United States. Considering the vast benefits of early school readiness for development and academic achievement, our findings suggest a need for interventions that enhance school readiness among children who experience parental incarceration.
研究记录了父母监禁对儿童发展的几个附带后果。然而，关于父母监禁如何影响学龄前儿童的入学准备情况的研究有限。本研究考察了美国 3 至 5 岁儿童父母监禁与入学准备之间的关系。
本研究采用了 2016 年至 2018 年全国儿童健康调查的数据。入学准备的衡量标准包括以下 4 个领域：早期学习技能、自我调节、社会情感发展以及身体健康和运动发展。采用多项逻辑回归分析了儿童在这些关键入学准备领域中达到标准的程度。
父母监禁与在所有 4 个领域达到标准的预测概率降低有关。此外，虽然大约每 33 个没有监禁父母的孩子中只有 1 个在没有任何一个领域达到标准，但大约每 6 个经历父母监禁的孩子中就有 1 个在没有任何一个领域达到标准。辅助分析表明，这些结果在每个入学准备领域的各个项目中基本保持一致。
本研究使用一种新的入学准备衡量标准，发现父母监禁与美国学龄前儿童入学准备水平降低有关。考虑到早期入学准备对发展和学业成就的巨大益处，我们的研究结果表明，需要采取干预措施，提高经历父母监禁的儿童的入学准备水平。
