Abstract
The aim of the analyses was to investigate the relations between parental incarceration and the levels of behavioral and emotional problems in children of fathers serving prison sentences, based on the children’s self-report. We tested a criterion group and two control groups. The criterion group consisted of children whose fathers were in prison. The children in control group I were from complete families; the level of problem behaviors in these families and the level of psychological resiliency in these children were similar to the respective levels in the criterion group. Finally, control group II consisted of children whose fathers were not in prison; problem behaviors in their families were basically absent or slight, and their level of resiliency was significantly higher compared to prisoners’ children and control group I. Prisoners’ children exhibited a higher level of emotional and behavioral problems than children from families in which the father was not serving a prison sentence and in which the level of dysfunctions was low. As regards prisoners’ children compared to their peers with a similar level of resiliency and a similar level of problem behavior in the family, statistically significant differences were found only in a few categories of emotional and behavioral problems. Parental incarceration proved to be an additional factor increasing the level of behavioral and emotional problems in children and adolescents—particularly girls—whose fathers were imprisoned.
Highlights
In the twenty-first century, mental disorders have become a serious social problem, affecting adults and young children and adolescents [1]
We focus on the issues of parental incarceration in the etiology of behavioral and emotional problems
What are the differences in the levels of behavioral and emotional problems between (1) prisoners’ children, (2) children from complete families with similar levels of resiliency and dysfunctional/problem behavior in the family, and (3) their peers from complete families without dysfunctions?
Summary
In the twenty-first century, mental disorders have become a serious social problem, affecting adults and young children and adolescents [1]. The risk of abnormal mental development seems to be even higher in the group of prisoners’ children. Scholars point out that prisoner’s children are in a high-risk group for antisocial behavior and emotional or social difficulties [4,5,6]. Children and adolescents function in various social environments on an everyday basis, the key ones being family, school, and peer group [7,8,9]. Human development is closely related to learning in a social context [7]. This process is characterized by a dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, the environment, and behavior [7], which is of particular importance in the context of the functioning of imprisoned people’s children. Self-report surveys are valuable insofar as they provide the diagnostician with results that concern the subject’s functioning in all of these social environments [10,11]
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