Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration

5. Children of Incarcerated Parents: Multiple Risks and Children’s Living Arrangements

Elizabeth I. Johnson Jane Waldfogel Children of Incarcerated Parents: Multiple Risks and Children’s 5 Living Arrangements State and federal inmates were parents to more than 1.3 million children in 1997, a near tripling of the 1986 figure (Johnson and Waldfogel 2002). This dramatic increase in the number of parents in prison has prompted concern about the well-being of children whose parents are incarcerated. But parental incarceration is only one of many factors that may influence how these children are faring. We know, for example, that many children whose parents are incarcerated have been exposed to parental (for example, substance abuse, mental health problems) and environmental (for example, poverty) risk factors before their parents’ incarceration. Attributes of the particular child, where the child is placed during a parent ’s incarceration, and the nature of the relationship with the substitute caregiver may also influence how well a child functions in the face of parental incarceration. Although concern about this population has often been directed at children who enter the child welfare system as a result of parental incarceration , most children of incarcerated parents do not end up in state care. Of the 1.3 million children of state and federal inmates in 1997, an estimated 24,000 were in foster care, and 155,049 were in the care of grandparents (the share of these who are formal kinship foster care providers is unclear) (Johnson and Waldfogel 2002). The remaining children live in a variety of arrangements, including living with the other parent, with other relatives, on their own, or in some other form of care. Given the probable presence of other preincarceration risk factors, it is likely that children in living arrangements other than foster care have special service needs as well. The primary goals of this chapter are to identify the nature and prevalence of risk factors in the lives of incarcer- 98 Imprisoning America ated parents and their children and to determine whether and how these relate to children’s living arrangements. By identifying risk factors facing children in specific living arrangements, we hope to contribute to child welfare and community-based agencies’ efforts to tailor and coordinate services to incarcerated parents and their children. THE EFFECTS OF INCARCERATION ON CHILDREN The small research literature on children of incarcerated parents suggests that parental incarceration is associated with poorer emotional, behavioral , and psychological development of children (Stanton 1980; Baunach 1985; Bloom and Steinhart 1993). Problems such as aggressive behavior and withdrawal (Baunach 1985), criminal involvement (Johnston 1991, 1992), and depression and concentration problems (Kampfner 1995) have been observed among children whose parents are imprisoned. Existing studies, however, do not allow the effects of incarceration to be teased apart from the effects of other variables such as where the child is placed during the incarceration and the presence of preincarceration risk factors . Parental characteristics, such as substance abuse, mental health problems, and histories of abuse, for example, may already have put the child at risk before the parent went to prison. The child’s experiences subsequent to the parental incarceration may also place the child at risk (or may mitigate earlier risks). ATTACHMENT Another concern regarding parental incarceration that is often articulated , yet even less well studied in this population, is the issue of parentchild attachment. Attachment is conceived of as “a pattern of organized behavior within a relationship” (Sroufe et al. 1999, 1). Through the relationship with an attachment figure, the child is afforded a secure base from which to explore. This relationship also shapes children’s “internal working models,” which guide the child’s engagement in and interpretation of interactions with others. Internal working models influence not only children’s expectations and appraisals of social relationships but also their perceptions of their own capabilities and their ability to selfregulate (Easterbrooks, Davidson, and Chazen 1993), both of which are important developmental tasks. Since John Bowlby’s (1969, 1973, and 1980) attachment trilogy was published, attachment theory has held a prominent place in psychological research. Attachment researchers examining maternal and child characteristics associated with attachment relationships have devoted Children of Incarcerated Parents 99 considerable effort to delineating the short- and long-term consequences of attachment security for child outcomes. Numerous studies suggest that attachment security during infancy has important consequences for later psychosocial functioning. Securely attached infants have been rated as more socially competent with peers (Elicker, Englund, and Sroufe 1992; Erickson, Sroufe, and Egeland 1985; Pastor...