Experience Of Parental Incarceration Research Articles

Financial strain, the transference of stigma, and residential instability: A qualitative analysis of the long‐term effects of parental incarceration

AbstractObjectiveThis study seeks to document the long‐term effects of parental incarceration on life course by interviewing adults who had a parent incarcerated when they were a child.BackgroundAn exponential increase in incarceration in the late 20th century has produced many adverse effects and increased social disadvantage for families and communities. From the life course perspective, parental incarceration is argued to be a detrimental experience in numerous ways.MethodsThis study utilizes (N = 31) in‐depth qualitative interviews with adult respondents in California who experienced parental incarceration at some point in their life. The study uses descriptive phenomenology to examine the effects of parental incarceration on life course.ResultsThe themes discussed in this study are financial and emotional strain, residential instability, and the transference of stigma. Financial strain and residential instability were associated with many negative effects for children of incarcerated parents. Participants recalled such experiences as consistently moving residencies, attending multiple schools, homelessness and inability to attend school, and lack of household resources. The transference of stigma occurred when a parent's record became a representation of a child's moral worth. Interviewees reported feeling or experiencing stigmatization, in social and professional settings, due to their parent's incarceration or criminal record.ConclusionThis study illuminates how the life course experience of parental incarceration can have significant long‐term impacts on children, potentially placing them at risk. Documenting the intergenerational impacts of mass incarceration on children and families is of societal importance.

"The Glass is Half Full": Narratives from Young Adults on Parental Incarceration and Emerging Adulthood.

Prior literature highlights that children of incarcerated parents are more likely to endure negative life outcomes. Yet, this discussion is mainly centered on the immediate impacts of parental incarceration during childhood and adolescent years, with less focus on the longer-term consequences as these children emerge into adulthood. This study examined how young adults interpreted their experience of parental incarceration. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 young adults to understand their interpretations of parental incarceration as a turning point in specific transitions to adulthood: education and employment, intimate relationships, living independently, and parenthood. Findings demonstrate that, for some respondents, this experience created negative turning points, for example, by limiting their academic opportunities due to financial strain or a lack of support, hindering their trust in romantic partners, keeping them from living independently due to feelings of responsibility for the remaining parent, or by creating a fear of repeating the cycle with their own children. For other respondents, this experience created positive impacts on their lives because it provided a motivational push towards acquiring an education, accelerated them into becoming independent, or encouraged their desire to become a good parent and provide stability for their own children. There were also respondents who believed that the experience had no effects on certain life domains. These findings add to the growing body of research by providing support that parental incarceration can influence avenues for success and alter navigations into emerging adulthood.

Parental incarceration and the mental health of youth in the justice system: The moderating role of neighborhood disorder.

Neighborhood-level characteristics may inform youths’ experience of parental incarceration; however, their precise role has not yet been established. Some empirical evidence indicates that neighborhood disorder compounds the psychological distress of parental incarceration because youth living in disorderly neighborhoods are more likely to be affected by other related stressors. Other theorists suggest that neighborhood disorder mitigates the psychological distress of parental incarceration because the residents of disordered neighborhoods may be more equipped to address the collateral challenges associated with incarceration. Drawing upon secondary data from 1,186 male youth who had been arrested for the first time, the present study empirically tested these competing hypotheses by examining the moderating role of neighborhood disorder in the predictive relationship between parental incarceration and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). The results indicate that both youth of color and youth living in high levels of neighborhood disorder experience no incremental change in GAD and MDD scores when a parent is incarcerated. However, parental incarceration is associated with significantly higher GAD and MDD scores among White youth in nondisordered neighborhoods. The results speak to the contextual mechanisms that inform youths’ experience of parental incarceration. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Caregivers’ Expectations, Reflected Appraisals, and Arrests among Adolescents Who Experienced Parental Incarceration

This research sought to identify a potential process by which intergenerational crime occurs, focusing on the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ subsequent arrests. We drew from Matsueda’s work on reflected appraisals as an explanatory mechanism for this effect. Thus, the present research examined whether caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for adolescents’ future incarceration sequentially mediated the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual arrest outcomes. Propensity score matching was used to examine this effect in a sample of 1,735 15- to 16-year-olds using NLSY97 data. Parental incarceration was positively related to caregivers’ expectations of adolescents’ future arrest. Moreover, caregivers’ expectations were strongly associated with adolescents’ expectations. Finally, the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual future arrest likelihood was partially mediated by caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for this outcome. This study revealed support for the proposition that the experience of parental incarceration may influence adolescents’ negative outcomes through reflected appraisals.

Youth self-reported health and their experience of parental incarceration.

Mass incarceration is becoming one of this country's most detrimental public health problems. Children are particularly affected by this phenomenon, as parental incarceration is associated with a host of adverse outcomes, including children's engagement in health-risk behaviors that may negatively influence their mental and physical health. This study compares physical health indicators of youth with currently and formerly incarcerated parents with youth with no history of parental incarceration. Using cross-sectional data from the 2016 Minnesota Student Survey (MSS), this secondary data analysis examined behavioral indicators of physical health among 8th, 9th, and 11th grade students (N = 119,029). Self-reported behavioral indicators of physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, fast food consumption, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, and sleep were assessed. We also included a measure of perceived overall health. Logistic regression models controlling for demographic characteristics compared youth with currently and formerly incarcerated parents to youth with no history of parental incarceration. As predicted, parental incarceration was significantly associated with lower levels of healthy behaviors and higher levels of unhealthy behaviors. Contrary to expectations, youth with currently incarcerated parents did not differ significantly from youth with formerly incarcerated parents. Parental incarceration was associated with youth engagement in health risk behaviors, even if the parent was not currently incarcerated. These results suggest parental incarceration is associated with poor health behaviors that have implications for future health, and emphasizes the need for practitioners and policymakers to focus on interventions for this high-risk group of children and their families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

What does your dad do for a living? Children of prisoners and their experiences of stigma

Stigma has frequently been described as one of the unintended consequences of parental incarceration yet little research has been conducted on this issue with children and young people. This article examines and conceptualizes the experiences of stigma for children who have experienced parental incarceration in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The article reports on the findings of a qualitative study designed to investigate children's experiences of parental incarceration. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 16 children. The results of this study demonstrate that stigma associated with parental incarceration manifests in children's lives in different and distinct ways. Despite these differences, children and young people describe three key strategies to manage the stigma that they experience: maintaining privacy and withholding information; self- exclusion and self-reliance, and managing peer relationships. The policy and practice implications of these findings are discussed.

A Retrospective Look at the Experience of Parental Incarceration and Family Reentry During Adolescence

ABSTRACTFew studies provide firsthand experiences of parental incarceration in adolescents’ own voices. Fourteen young men and women retrospectively shared their experiences of parental incarceration and family reentry during adolescence. Individual interviews focused on the following qualitative research questions: (1) What is the experience of parental incarceration and reentry for adolescents? (2) How does the child–parent relationship change from pre- to postincarceration? Relationships with incarcerated parents tended toward estrangement. Negative emotions and need for emotional support were predominant in the sample. Findings have implications for improving mental health services for children and families, trauma work, and policy interventions across services.

Avoiding the pathologizing of children of prisoners

Using the existing empirical literature and making reference to original research with Canadian children of prisoners, this Practice Note offers a caution to practitioners against making homogenizing or pathologizing assumptions about children who have a parent involved in the criminal justice system. Specifically, the notions that children of prisoners are highly likely to follow their parent to prison, are identical in their experiences of parental incarceration, or are necessarily in need of a specific counselling intervention are challenged. While children with a parent in prison are vulnerable to a variety of risk factors such as poverty, the relationship between parental incarceration, its covariates, and negative outcomes is complex. This paper concludes with four recommendations to practitioners working with families of prisoners and others involved in the justice system.

Stigma Management among Children of Incarcerated Parents

ABSTRACTThe stigma of incarceration can extend beyond the offender to his or her family, yet we know very little about how children of incarcerated parents manage their spoiled identity. Using interviews with 32 college students whose parents were incarcerated during their childhood, this study explored their stigma management techniques. Through grounded theory analysis, it became apparent that participants separated themselves from their incarcerated parent, viewed their incarcerated parent as a role model, and framed parental incarceration positively. These techniques allowed them to sustain a prosocial identity in light of their experience of parental incarceration.

Children of prisoners – children's decision making about contact

AbstractChildren commonly experience considerable disruption to their care when a parent is incarcerated. Maintaining relationships between children and their incarcerated parents can present particular challenges, and for a growing number of children, continuing contact with their incarcerated parent is a key issue. Most of the research about children's experiences of parental incarceration is filtered through adults who may or may not have spoken with children. This article draws on data collected for a research project which aimed to build an understanding of the needs and issues facing children and young people living in the Australian Capital Territory, who have experienced parental incarceration. This paper considers one key finding; children and young people's perspectives on contact with their incarcerated parent. This was reflected in four thematic clusters: quality of relationships; participation in decision making; the challenges and benefits of contact and practical issues.