Beyond Absenteeism: Father Incarceration and Child Development

Abstract

High rates of incarceration among American men, coupled with high rates of fatherhood among men in prison, have motivated recent research on the effects of parental imprisonment on children’s development. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the relationship between paternal incarceration and developmental outcomes for approximately 3,000 urban children. We estimate cross-sectional and longitudinal regression models that control not only for fathers’ basic demographic characteristics and a rich set of potential confounders, but also for several measures of pre-incarceration child development and family fixed effects. We find significant increases in aggressive behaviors among children whose fathers are incarcerated, and some evidence of increased attention problems. The estimated effects of paternal incarceration are stronger than those of other forms of father absence, suggesting that children with incarcerated fathers may require specialized support from caretakers, teachers, and social service providers. The estimated effects are stronger for children who lived with their fathers prior to incarceration, but are also significant for children of nonresident fathers, suggesting that incarceration places children at risk through family hardships including and beyond parent-child separation.

Paternal Incarceration and Teachers’ Expectations of Students

“…2 For our study, the key advantage of the BASC is that it includes information on adaptive and problem behaviors, making it possible for us to provide a global assessment of effects of paternal incarceration on teachers' expectations. The key advantage of the TRF is that most studies in this area have relied on the TRF or a variant of it such as the Child Behavior Checklist/6-18 (CBCL/6-18) (e.g., Geller et al 2012). Because the TRF includes three response categories (not true, somewhat or sometimes true, and very true or often true) while the BASC includes four (never, sometimes, often, and almost always), we increased the sample size for the online study to gain sufficient statistical power.…”

Fathers’ Roles in the Care and Development of Their Children: The Role of Pediatricians

“…More than 750 000 fathers are absent serving time in prison. 102 A new program at the Boston Children's Museum called Father's Uplift brings previously incarcerated fathers to the museum to reengage with their children in a welcoming, imaginative, child-centered learning environment that supports diverse families in nurturing their children's creativity and curiosity through joyful play. In a qualitative study, previously incarcerated black fathers expressed a need for employment, social support, and health care to rebuild healthy relationships with their children.…”

“…In a qualitative study, previously incarcerated black fathers expressed a need for employment, social support, and health care to rebuild healthy relationships with their children. 102,103 Increasingly, the relationship of children and incarcerated fathers is an area of study. 104 The fathers of children born to unmarried teenaged mothers (resident or nonresident) may be an important protective factor if they remain involved in their children's lives.…”

Whose Sentence Is It? The Effects of Parental Incarceration on the Academic Lives of Children – A Review of the Literature

“…For example, the level of parentchild contact and the quality of the parent-child relationship prior to imprisonment may obviously play a role in determining the level of disruption or anxiety experienced by a child (see, for example, [12], [13] and [14]). There is some controversy regarding the importance of the developmental stage of the child when it comes to estimating how a child will react to a parent's imprisonment.…”