Witnessing Parental Arrest As a Predictor of Child Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms During and After Parental Incarceration

Abstract

Purpose One in fourteen children in the United States experiences the incarceration of a parent with whom they have lived. Although prior research has established that witnessing the arrest of a parent is a common occurrence for children of criminal justice-involved parents, child outcomes following such an event are understudied. Little is known about the long-term impacts of witnessing an arrest on children and the extent to which they may vary by child age. Methods Using longitudinal data from the Parent Child Study of mothers and fathers incarcerated in state prison, we examine the witnessing of parental arrest as an acute traumatic event and identify the extent to which this type of trauma predicts externalizing and internalizing symptoms for children during their parents’ incarceration and following release. Results Witnessing a parent’s arrest predicted greater internalizing behavior concerns while parents were incarcerated, with a greater magnitude of effect for children under eight years of age. Six months post-release of the parent, children younger than age eight who witnessed the arrest showed significantly higher internalizing and externalizing behaviors. No effect was found for children ages eight years or older. Conclusion Implications for future policies to reduce the likelihood of children witnessing parental arrests, as well as the potential benefit of screening for trauma when working with children with incarcerated parents, are discussed.

Child Psychopathologies Linking Family Adversities to Educational Involvement among Children of Incarcerated Fathers

“…While both general and parental incarceration-specific risk experiences have been linked to later maladjustment, some studies have indicated that parental incarceration-specific risk factors exert a more pronounced influence on children's externalizing and internalizing problems compared to general risk factors (Dallaire et al, 2015). Witnessing the arrest, criminal behavior, or conviction of a parent has been found to be associated with greater posttraumatic stress symptoms (Phillips & Zhao, 2010), internalizing and externalizing problems (Metcalfe et al, 2022;Roberts et al, 2014), and emotion regulation difficulties in the child, even after controlling for other environmental risks (Dallaire & Wilson, 2010).…”

Struggle Outside Jails: Scoping Review of Impacts and Resiliency Among Children of Incarcerated Parents

“…Parents have an essential role in determining the success of a children's development and are very influential on the psychological condition of the child ( Lacey et al, 2020). The absence of parents physically and emotionally will have very significant negative consequences, both in terms of mental health and family dysfunction (Hall et al, 2021;Lacey et al, 2022;Rampersaud et al, 2022), one of which is caused by parental arrest (Metcalfe et al, 2022;Noel & Hoeben, 2022;Poehlmann-Tynan et al, 2021) which is felt directly by the child. According to Kusnandar in Databoks (2022), which reported news from the Directorate General of Corrections of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia, in 2022, there were 227,431 inmates in prisons and 48,741 detainees in detention centers.…”