Mass incarceration has profoundly restructured the life courses of not only marginalized adult men for whom this event is now so prevalent but also their families. We examined research published from 2000 to 2017 on the consequences of parental incarceration for child health in the United States. In addition to focusing on specific health outcomes, we also considered broader indicators of child well-being because there has been little research on the association between parental incarceration and objectively measured child health outcomes. Our findings support 4 conclusions. First, paternal incarceration is negatively associated—possibly causally so—with a range of child health and well-being indicators. Second, although some research has suggested a negative association between maternal incarceration and child health, the evidence on this front is mixed. Third, although the evidence for average effects of paternal incarceration on child health and well-being is strong, research has also suggested that some key factors moderate the association between paternal incarceration and child health and well-being. Finally, because of the unequal concentration of parental incarceration and the negative consequences this event has for children, mass incarceration has increased both intracountry inequality in child health in the United States and intercountry inequality in child health between the United States and other developed democracies. In light of these important findings, investment in data infrastructure—with emphasis on data sets that include reliable measures of parental incarceration and child health and data sets that facilitate causal inferences—is needed to understand the child health effects of parental incarceration.

中文翻译：

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美国的父母监禁与儿童健康

大规模监禁不仅深刻地改变了边缘化成年男性的生活历程，对于他们而言，这种事件现在如此普遍，而且他们的家庭也如此。我们审查了2000年至2017年发表的关于父母监禁对儿童健康的影响的研究。除了关注特定的健康结局之外，我们还考虑了更广泛的儿童福祉指标，因为关于父母监禁与客观衡量的儿童健康结局之间关系的研究很少。我们的发现支持4个结论。首先，父亲的监禁与一系列儿童健康和福祉指标负相关（可能是因果关系）。其次，尽管一些研究表明，母亲监禁与儿童健康之间存在负相关关系，这方面的证据好坏参半。第三，尽管有充分证据证明父亲监禁对儿童健康和幸福的平均影响是有力的，但研究还表明，一些关键因素可缓和父亲监禁与儿童健康和幸福之间的联系。最后，由于父母监禁的不平等集中以及这一事件对儿童的负面影响，大规模监禁不仅加剧了美国儿童健康方面的国家内部不平等，而且加剧了美国与其他发达民主国家之间儿童健康方面的国家间不平等。鉴于这些重要发现，