Pervasive influence of maternal and paternal criminal offending on early childhood development: a population data linkage study

What is it about?

This report examined the impact of parental criminal offending on offspring's developmental outcomes at age 5 years. Data from the Australian Early Development Census, a teacher-reported assessment of childhood development across five domains of development (social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and communication), was linked with maternal and paternal offending histories obtained from official records. Children whose parents had a history of criminal offending were at significantly greater risk of developmental vulnerability on each of the five domains. The risk of vulnerability was greatest when both parents offended, when mothers rather than fathers offended, and when the offending was of a violent nature. For all types of offending, children were more likely to be vulnerable on multiple domains than on a single domain.

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Why is it important?

These findings indicate that the impact of parental criminal offending on offspring development in early childhood is widespread, impacting on the development of social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and communication skills. This highlights the need to support affected families in order to improve a broad range of outcomes for the children.