BackgroundThere is currently insufficient understanding of the health and behavior of children whose parents engage in criminal behavior. We examined associations between parental criminal convictions and wide range of offspring health, behavioral, and social outcomes by age 18 in a large, national sample, aiming to get a comprehensive picture of the risks among children of offending parents.MethodsWe studied 1,013,385 individuals born in Sweden between 1987 and 1995, and their parents. Using data from several longitudinal nationwide registers, we investigated parental convictions and 85 offspring outcomes until the end of 2013, grouped into birth‐related conditions, psychiatric and somatic disorders, accidents and injuries, mortality, school achievement, violent victimization, and criminality. Cox proportional hazards regression and logistic regression models were used to examine the associations. The role of genetic factors in intergenerational associations was studied in children‐of‐siblings analyses. We also examined the co‐occurrence of multiple outcomes using Poisson regression.ResultsA total of 223,319 (22.0%) individuals had one parent convicted and 31,241 (3.1%) had both parents convicted during the first 18 years of their life. The strongest associations were found between parental convictions and offspring behavioral problems, substance use disorders, poor school achievement, violent victimization, and criminality, with an approximately 2 to 2.5‐fold increased risk in children with one convicted parent and 3‐ to 4‐fold increased risk in children with two convicted parents. The risks were particularly elevated among children of incarcerated parents with a history of violent convictions. The associations appeared to be at least partly explained by genetic influences. Parental convictions were also associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing multiple outcomes.ConclusionsOur findings help to calibrate the risks of a wide range of adverse outcomes associated with parental convictions and may be used to guide prevention efforts and identify key areas for future research.

中文翻译：

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有刑事定罪父母的后代的健康、行为和社会结果：瑞典的一项基于登记的研究

背景目前对父母从事犯罪行为的儿童的健康和行为了解不足。我们在全国范围内的大型样本中研究了父母的犯罪定罪与 18 岁时子女健康、行为和社会结果之间的关联，旨在全面了解犯罪父母的子女所面临的风险。方法我们研究了 1,013,385 名出生于1987 年至 1995 年间的瑞典，以及他们的父母。我们使用来自多个纵向全国登记册的数据，调查了截至 2013 年底的父母定罪情况和 85 名子女的结局，分为与出生有关的疾病、精神和躯体疾病、事故和伤害、死亡率、学业成绩、暴力受害和犯罪行为。使用 Cox 比例风险回归和逻辑回归模型来检查相关性。在兄弟姐妹的子女分析中研究了遗传因素在代际关联中的作用。我们还使用泊松回归检查了多个结果的共现情况。结果共有 223,319 人 (22.0%) 的人在其生命的前 18 年中父母一方被定罪，31,241 人 (3.1%) 的父母双亲都被定罪。父母的定罪与子女的行为问题、药物滥用障碍、学业成绩差、暴力受害和犯罪之间存在最强的关联，其中父母一方被定罪的儿童的风险增加约 2 至 2.5 倍，儿童的风险增加 3 至 4 倍父母两名被定罪的儿童的风险增加。对于有暴力定罪史的父母被监禁的孩子来说，这种风险尤其高。这些关联似乎至少部分是由遗传影响来解释的。父母的信念也与经历多种结果的可能性增加有关。结论我们的研究结果有助于校准与父母的信念相关的各种不良结果的风险，并可用于指导预防工作并确定未来研究的关键领域。