Abstract
The number of families affected by parental incarceration in the United States has increased dramatically in the past three decades, with primarily negative implications for adult mental health and child and family well-being. Despite research documenting increased strain on coparenting relationships, less is known regarding the relation between adult mental health and coparenting quality. This study investigated coparenting in families with young children currently experiencing parental incarceration. In a diverse sample of 86 jailed parent–caregiver dyads (n = 172), this analysis of a short-term longitudinal study examined the links among jailed parents’ and children’s at-home caregivers’ externalizing mental health symptoms and perceived coparenting alliance quality using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model. Analyses using structural equation modeling revealed a medium sized negative partner effect for externalizing behaviors on coparenting alliance for jailed parents, wherein caregivers increased externalizing symptoms related to jailed parents’ lower reported coparenting quality. Caregiver–partner effects and both actor effects resulted in small effects. These findings highlight the roles of mental health and coparenting relationship quality when a parent is incarcerated and contribute to the existing literature on incarcerated coparenting, with implications for theory and practice.
Highlights
Only five percent of the world’s population resides in the United States (U.S.), it is home to 25% of the world’s prison population [1], as the U.S has the highest incarceration rate of any country [2]
We aimed to address the following research as question: Ho as an independent variable’s effect on the partner’s dependent variable, in do jailed parent and caregiver externalizing mental health symptoms relate to perceiv paired dyads
The present study focused on the 86 incarcerated parent–caregiver dyads who reported on their coparenting alliance with each other and their own mental health at initial assessment
Summary
Only five percent of the world’s population resides in the United States (U.S.), it is home to 25% of the world’s prison population [1], as the U.S has the highest incarceration rate of any country [2]. Most incarceration in the U.S occurs in jails as opposed to prisons [3], and the majority (67%) of individuals incarcerated in jails are parents [4]. Stark racial and economic disparities in incarceration rates result in more impoverished families and families of color impacted by parental incarceration [5]. Parental incarceration impacts families and individuals, including effects on the incarcerated parent’s mental health, the mental health of children’s at-home caregivers, the parent–caregiver coparenting relationship, and children’s well-being [6]. From a family–systems theory (FST) perspective [7], positive coparenting between incarcerated parents and their children’s at-home caregivers ( referred to as caregivers) may act as a dyadic protective factor for the family system; few studies have examined the incarcerated coparenting relationship as a dyadic system.
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