The strain of sons' incarceration on mothers’ health

Abstract

Research on disadvantage across generations typically focuses on the resources that parents pass on to their children. Yet, social disadvantage might also result from the transmission of adverse experiences from children to their parents. This paper explores one such adverse experience by examining the influence of a son's incarceration on his mother's health. Using panel data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and its young adult follow up (n=2,651 mothers; 18,390 observations), the paper shows that mothers are more likely to suffer health limitations after a son is incarcerated. A time-distributed fixed effects analysis indicates that the effect on maternal health may persist or even grow over time. Rather than a short-term shock whose effect soon diminishes, a son's incarceration is a long-term strain on mothers' health. The disproportionate incarceration of young men in disadvantaged communities is thus likely to contribute to cumulative adversity among mothers already at risk of severe hardship. More broadly, the results suggest how children's adverse experiences may influence parental well-being, producing further disadvantage across generations.

Incarceration exposure during pregnancy and maternal disability: findings from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System

“…To be sure, research has showed significant declines in women’s cardiovascular health due to the stress of having a family member incarcerated [ 52 , 53 ]. In addition, recent scholarship has shown that due in part to stress, mothers endure greater levels of functional impairments after the incarceration of a child [ 54 , 55 ]. Accordingly, it is possible that the advent of partner’s incarceration during pregnancy may elevate the presence of functional disabilities in a woman.…”

Assessing mass incarceration’s effects on families

“…In Fig. 3, we highlight the core findings from one of these studies, which considers maternal physical limitations (44), a core predictor of mortality, indicator of general health, and factor shaping other domains of thriving (45). As Fig.…”

“…Qualitative research in poor communities has long documented the strain that a son's prison or jail incarceration places on mothers (41), with recent quantitative research also highlighting how a son's incarceration could increase the parenting burdens placed on grandparents (42). The results from two recent analyses are sobering: Mothers who had a child, almost always a son, incarcerated struggle mightily when it comes to a range of indicators of health, including but not limited to self-rated health, depression, and health limitations (43,44).…”

Health consequences of child removal among Indigenous and non‐Indigenous sex workers: Examining trajectories, mechanisms and resiliencies

“…The stress process model is frequently applied to examine how a stressful life event (‘primary’ stressor) can be a source of acute and chronic stress, both by the event having direct effects on health, as well as indirect effects through the triggering of ‘secondary’ stressors, which can accumulate over time to further worsen health (Pearlin, 1989). Though often applied as a sociological framework for understanding the relationships between institutions such as the criminal justice system and health (Sirois, 2020; Sugie & Turney, 2017), attention to these issues in the case of CPS and the health of mothers is a theoretical addition to the literature. Three key aspects of the model are helpful for our analysis.…”