Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Parental Offending and Child Physical Health, Mental Health, and Drug Use Outcomes: A Systematic Literature Review

  • Review Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Child and Family Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

A growing body of evidence suggests that parental offending may be linked to poor physical health, mental health, and drug use problems in offspring. However, previous systematic reviews have limited their scope to the association between parental incarceration and child substance use and mental health problems. We extend this research by conducting a systematic literature review on the impact of any parental offending, more broadly, on child physical and mental health outcomes, including drug use problems.

Methods

We searched relevant electronic databases and the reference lists of previous reviews for research examining the relationship between parental offending, excluding studies focused on incarceration alone, and health outcomes in offspring less than 18 years of age. Our search identified 1279 unique studies, 19 of which met the criteria for inclusion.

Results

Across this literature, associations were found between parental offending and poor physical health outcomes in young children and, more robustly, drug use in adolescence. The associations between parental offending and child health outcomes, particularly for child mental health, were found to be at least partially explained by other factors, such as child maltreatment and abuse. However, owing to methodological limitations, conclusions regarding the causal impact of parental offending on child health could not be confidently made.

Conclusion

Parental offending may be useful marker for identifying children at risk of poor health outcomes who may benefit from intervention.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Author Contributions

TW contributed to the design of the study, conducted the literature search and study selection, performed the data extraction, quality assessment, and drafted the manuscript. MB contributed to literature search and study selection, and the drafting and editing of the final manuscript. ST contributed to the design of the study, study selection, and the drafting and editing of the final manuscript. KD contributed to the design of the study, and the drafting and editing of the final manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tyson Whitten.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Whitten, T., Burton, M., Tzoumakis, S. et al. Parental Offending and Child Physical Health, Mental Health, and Drug Use Outcomes: A Systematic Literature Review. J Child Fam Stud 28, 1155–1168 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01388-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01388-7

Keywords

Navigation