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Children with Incarcerated Parents and Developmental Trajectories of Internalizing Problems across Adolescence

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Abstract

Research over the past several decades has documented the effect of parental incarceration on child development. While many findings point to a negative impact of parental incarceration on children, increasingly research demonstrates the heterogeneity of children’s experiences, behavior, and eventual outcomes. Examining this heterogeneity is key to developing effective interventions that enhance protective factors while addressing especially harmful risk factors. In the current study, we used growth mixture modeling to identify distinct trajectories of internalizing problems for youth (N = 655) from 10 to 16 years of age. We then examined the relations of the identified trajectories with parental incarceration, parent-child relationships, stressful life events, and parenting as well as future substance use, criminality, and suicidality (ideation and attempt). Four trajectory classes were identified: Low-Stable, Pre-Adolescent Limited, Moderate-Increasing, and High-Decreasing. Over half of the children who had experienced parental incarceration were best represented by the low risk trajectory. However, children with incarcerated parents were underrepresented in this trajectory and overrepresented in two of the three problematic trajectories. The trajectory classes differed significantly on many of the pre-adolescent measures as well as on adolescent delinquency, substance use, suicide ideation and suicide attempt. The Pre-Adolescent Limited, Moderate-Increasing, and High-Decreasing showed significantly higher levels of early risk factors and problematic outcomes than the Low-Stable trajectory group. Implications are discussed.

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Funding

Support for this project was provided by Grant R01 MH 65553 from the Prevention and Behavioral Medicine Research Branch, Division of Epidemiology and Services Research, NIMH, NIH, U. S. PHS, Grant R01 MH 054248 from the Prevention Research Branch, NIDA, NIH, U.S. PHS, and Grant 2013-JU-FX-0007, from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. DOJ. We would like to express our appreciation to the participating school principals, teachers, staff members, parents, and youth in the LIFT trial. We are thankful to the many Oregon Social Learning Center researchers, interventionists, and administrators who worked on LIFT over the years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Equity Promotion, Counseling Psychology and Human Services/Prevention Science, College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

    Jean Kjellstrand & Miriam Clark

  2. Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York, NY, USA

    Gary Yu

  3. Family Translational Research Group, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    J. Mark Eddy

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  1. Jean Kjellstrand
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  2. Gary Yu
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Correspondence to Jean Kjellstrand.

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Kjellstrand, J., Yu, G., Eddy, J.M. et al. Children with Incarcerated Parents and Developmental Trajectories of Internalizing Problems across Adolescence. Am J Crim Just 45, 48–69 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-019-09494-4

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