This article argues parental incarceration during childhood adversley affects multiple life outcomes for children as they move into adulthood.
Using propensity score matching analyses of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data the study investigated the effects of parental incarceration on both early young adulthood (18-14) and late young adulthood (26-34). The study identified a number of common negative outcomes at both stages including criminal behaviour, illegal drug use, low educational achievement and poor mental health. The findings suggest such outcomes are present during the transition to adulthood, persisting and becoming amplified over time. The authors argue parental incarceration must therefore be seen as a critical turning point in a child's life that not only results in negative outcomes during childhood, as other research has shown, but continues to exert harmful effects into adulthood. They call for further research into this area, highlighting a number of implications from the findings including the need for the collateral consequences of imprisonment to be considered by policy-makers and courts. See Young Adult Outcomes and the Life-Course Penalties of Parental Incarcerat through Sage Publications
An open-access pre-print version from Florida State University can also be accessed below:
