While it is widely recognized that imprisonment affects the lives of prisoners, there is increasing evidence that the consequences also extend to prisoners’ children. Recently, several studies showed that the experience of parental imprisonment could also have an impact on family formation processes when children grow older. These previous studies, however, used relatively short follow-up periods, up to adolescence or early adulthood. The current study uses a Dutch multigenerational dataset with follow-ups at, on average, age 28 (N = 1147) and 47 (N = 1241), which makes it possible to also examine life events that usually occur later in life. Official registration data were used to examine the relationship of parental offending and parental incarceration with offspring’s family formation patterns. Results show that children who experienced parental imprisonment were less likely to marry than those with parents who were never convicted. However, when they did marry, it was at a younger age and more often while being pregnant. Children of prisoners were also younger when they had their first child. Most of these differences were also found while comparing children of prisoners with children of convicted but not imprisoned parents. This suggests that these different family formation patterns are specifically related to the imprisonment of the parent rather than to the parent’s criminal behavior.

尽管人们普遍认为监禁会影响囚犯的生活，但越来越多的证据表明，这种后果也扩大到了囚犯的子女。最近，一些研究表明，当孩子长大时，父母被监禁的经历也可能对家庭形成过程产生影响。然而，这些先前的研究使用相对较短的随访期，直至青春期或成年早期。当前的研究使用荷兰的多代数据集，其平均随访年龄为28岁（N = 1147）和47岁（N = 1241），这使得检查通常发生在晚年的生活事件成为可能。官方注册数据用于检验父母的犯罪和父母监禁与后代的家庭形成模式之间的关系。结果表明，遭受父母监禁的孩子比从未被定罪的父母结婚的可能性更低。但是，当他们结婚时，年龄较小，怀孕时更多。当他们的第一个孩子时，囚犯的孩子也更年轻。在比较囚犯的孩子与被定罪但未入狱的父母的孩子时，也发现了大多数差异。这表明，这些不同的家庭形成模式特别与父母的监禁有关，而不与父母的犯罪行为有关。在比较囚犯的孩子与被定罪但未入狱的父母的孩子时，也发现了大多数差异。这表明，这些不同的家庭形成模式特别与父母的监禁有关，而不与父母的犯罪行为有关。在比较囚犯的孩子与被定罪但未入狱的父母的孩子时，也发现了大多数差异。这表明，这些不同的家庭形成模式特别与父母的监禁有关，而不与父母的犯罪行为有关。