The purpose of the current study is to examine associations between parental incarceration and children’s living arrangements in the United States. Data from the 2016–2018 National Survey of Children’s Health are utilized in the present study (N = 102,341). Difference-of-means t-tests and multinomial logistic regression were employed to analyze the data. Nearly 3 in 4 children with no history of parental incarceration lived with married parents, yet only 1 in 7 children with lifetime exposure to parental incarceration did. Furthermore, while exclusively non-parent caregiver arrangements were exceedingly rare for children with no lifetime exposure to parental incarceration (~ 2.5%), more than one-quarter of children exposed to parental incarceration were in exclusively non-parent caregiver arrangements. In homes with non-parent caregivers, parental incarceration is associated with a reduced prevalence of stepparent caregivers, yet an increased prevalence of grandparent, foster parent, and aunt/uncle caregivers. Additionally, over 70% of grandparent-caregiver households where children have experienced parental incarceration are skipped-generation households. The findings point to a substantial need to support diverse family structures in the wake of parental incarceration.

当前研究的目的是检查美国父母监禁与儿童生活安排之间的关联。本研究使用了 2016-2018 年全国儿童健康调查的数据 ( N  = 102,341)。采用均值差 t 检验和多项逻辑回归来分析数据。近四分之三的没有父母监禁史的儿童与已婚父母住在一起，但只有七分之一的儿童终生遭受父母监禁。此外，虽然只非父护理人员安排是极其罕见的用于与无使用寿命暴露于亲本监禁（〜2.5％）的儿童，超过四分之一暴露于亲本监禁均只非父母照顾者安排。在有非父母照料者的家庭中，父母被监禁与继父母照料者的患病率降低有关，但祖父母、养父母和阿姨/叔叔照料者的患病率增加。此外，超过 70% 的儿童经历过父母监禁的祖父母照顾家庭是跨代家庭。调查结果表明，在父母被监禁之后，迫切需要支持多样化的家庭结构。