What they don’t know won’t hurt them? Linking children’s knowledge of parental incarceration to post-release child well-being

Abstract

Background: Mass incarceration in the United States has resulted in a significant number of children experiencing parental incarceration, an experience that is tied to adverse child health. Providing children with developmentally appropriate information about parental incarceration has been found to contribute to improved well-being and attachment during incarceration; however, no work has examined how this information assists children after parents are released. This study aims to fill this gap by examining associations between children's knowledge of parental incarceration and their socio-emotional well-being both during parents' imprisonment and 6-months post-release. Methods: Using data from 299 parents enrolled in a longitudinal project, this study assessed how what children were told about their parent's incarceration influenced their internalizing and externalizing behaviors, as well as other behavioral health symptoms, across waves. Results: Findings indicate that children were more likely to be given complete information about their parent's incarceration when they were older, White, had incarcerated mothers (compared to fathers), and lived with the parent before they went to prison. There were fewer post-release behavior problems for younger children and boys when they were explicitly informed about their parent's incarceration. Conclusion: Heterogeneity in children's outcomes was found both during and after parental incarceration dependent upon what they were told about the impris-onment, finding the most protective evidence for younger boys. Findings call for additional strategies to support families in having conversations about parental incarceration, expand contact opportunities, and offer family-focused reentry programming to help children with incarcerated parents thrive.