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ABSTRACT
Although earlier works argue maternal incarceration negatively affects children with few exceptions, recent research suggests children of mothers who are incarcerated may experience unchanged–or improved–conditions. Using SISFCF 1997, the authors revisit an earlier study that found adult children of incarcerated mothers (n = 325) were 2.5 times more likely to be incarcerated relative to adult children incarcerated fathers (n = 1,104). The authors also include refined predictors and parents of adult and minor children (n = 945). These modifications reduce mothers’ odds of adult child incarceration, yet results are consistent with the original study. Despite limitations, this analysis provides some support for earlier research on this topic. The authors conclude by emphasizing the importance of accounting for parent–child contact during incarceration in future research.
Funding
This research was supported in part by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development (R24 HD041028).
Notes
1. From 1985 to 2009, the proportion of incarcerated women increased at a rate twice that of their male counterparts (The Sentencing Project, Citation2007; Women’s Prison Association, Citation2010). By 2010, more than one million women were under probation, parole or incarcerated (The Sentencing Project, Citation2012). Between 2013 and 2014, the female incarcerated population sentenced to more than one year in prison increased from 104,300 to 106,2000 (Carson, Citation2015).
2. During the 1990s, Black women were twice as likely compared to Hispanic women and seven times more likely than White women to be incarcerated (Bonczar & Beck, Citation1997).
3. In 2004, estimates of parental incarceration ranged between 52% and 63% of incarcerated persons in federal and state prisons, respectively (Glaze & Maruschak, Citation2008). Between 1991 and 2007, the most recent cross-sectional estimate, the rate of incarcerated parents increased by 79% to impact 1.7 million children (Glaze & Maruschak, Citation2008; Schirmer, Nellis, & Maurer, Citation2009). Recent analyses suggest that more than five million children have ever experienced the incarceration of a coresident parent; these figures are conservative, given that nonresident parents were not included (Murphey & Cooper, Citation2015).
4. By midyear 2007, 6.7% of all Black minor children and 0.9% of all White minor children living in the United States had at least one incarcerated parent (Glaze & Maruschak, Citation2008).
5. Parents who reported having adult and minor children (n = 1,099) were eliminated.
6. Although logistic regression models were stratified by parent sex, Dallaire did not test the effect of being female in a single multivariate regression model.
7. Mothers who were incarcerated and who used illegal drugs regularly prior to admission and those whose spouses had also been incarcerated were three times more likely to report adult child incarceration relative to other mothers who were incarcerated. African American mothers were 2.71 times more likely than mothers of all other racial/ethnic backgrounds to report adult child incarceration.
8. Fathers who were divorced and never married and incarcerated were 41% less likely to report adult child incarceration, whereas fathers who reported spousal incarceration were 7.3 times more likely to report adult child incarceration relative to other fathers who were incarcerated. Fathers who were incarcerated and older were also more likely to report adult child incarceration.
9. At year-end 2014, Hispanic men accounted for 22% of the male prison population (Carson, Citation2015).
10. We relied upon an SISFCF created variable that indicated whether respondents were incarcerated for violent offenses, which included murder, negligent manslaughter, kidnapping, rape, other sexual offense, robbery assault, and other violent crimes.
11. Prior to expanding our sample to include parents of minor and adult children, we successfully reproduced Dallaire’s (Citation2007) original finding that mothers of only adult children who were incarcerated were 2.5 times more likely than fathers to report adult child incarceration (not shown).