ABSTRACT
Research on paternal incarceration has paid less attention to young fathers incarcerated in jail settings where most residents are either pretrial detained or serving out short sentences. This study describes the characteristics of a sample of 103 jailed fathers aged 18 to 25, including two subsamples consist of participants who had opportunity to recidivate (n = 83) and participants who completed trauma history questionnaire (n = 62), and explores associations between father experiences, father–child relationships, behavioral health factors, and recidivism. Results show jailed young fathers have several risk factors as well as strengths. Their father–child relationship is positively associated with training on fathering skills, employment experiences, and self-efficacy, and negatively associated with incarceration history. Employment is the only variable that identifies the differences in recidivism. Implications for a future research agenda are discussed.
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Susan Stone for her invaluable feedback on the Method section of our manuscript.
Data availability statement
Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Submission declaration and verification
The work described in this manuscript has not been published previously. It is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Its publication is approved by all authors and explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out. If the manuscript is accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.