Academic Research · Plain-language review
Parents’ Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences and Offspring Involvement With the Criminal Legal System
This study asks an important multigenerational question: are parents’ childhood experiences associated with their children’s later arrest or conviction? Its findings support attention to intergenerational adversity and protective relationships—but do not make adversity destiny.
What the researchers studied
Researchers analyzed 1,854 parent-child dyads from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Parents reported adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and positive childhood experiences (PCEs). The study then examined whether their children reported arrest or conviction before age 26.
The analysis adjusted for several family and demographic factors. Because it is observational, it can identify patterns and associations but cannot establish that a parent’s childhood experiences caused a particular outcome for a child.
What they found
Compared with no reported parental ACEs, four or more parental ACEs were associated with higher adjusted odds of offspring arrest and conviction before age 26. The associations remained after the researchers accounted for parental PCEs.
This does not mean every family with adversity will experience criminal legal involvement. Odds describe group-level patterns, not an individual person’s future.
Why this matters to From Roots to Resilience
The study is relevant to FRTR’s educational focus on ACEs, protective experiences, family patterns, resilience, reflection, and accountability. It supports the rationale for teaching these subjects together. It is not an evaluation of FRTR and does not prove the program produces particular outcomes.
Positive experiences need careful interpretation
Positive experiences can support resilience and healthier development, but they should not be presented as a mathematical eraser of adversity. In this study, the available PCE questions were constructed from existing survey measures, and higher PCE scores did not eliminate the reported ACE associations.
That finding should not be read as saying positive relationships do not matter. It means the study’s particular measure and design cannot reduce resilience to a simple score or promise.
What the study does not prove
The study does not establish causation, predict an individual child’s future, or show that parents with high ACE scores cause children to offend. It does not excuse harmful conduct or replace accountability. ACE and legal-system histories were self-reported, and the PCE measure was limited by the questions available in the long-running survey.
It also does not test any IWP curriculum. IWP describes this paper as evidence relevant to FRTR’s subject matter—not evidence of FRTR’s effectiveness.
Citation
Suggested citation:
Barnert, E. S., Schlichte, L. M., Tolliver, D. G., et al. “Parents’ Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences and Offspring Involvement With the Criminal Legal System.” JAMA Network Open 6(10): e2339648 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.39648