What are the Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children?

One of the biggest challenges we face is providing children and families of the incarcerated support so that they can work through this life-changing event. There are national, state and local resources available to help these children, it's simply a matter of ensuring that they and the adults caring for them know how and where to access these programs and resources.    According to The National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated , family members caring for the children do not seek out assistance because of shame and fear. Family members are concerned that if they seek out assistance the children in their care will be taken by child protective services. Additionally, they feel as though their association with the incarcerated family member will negatively impact their lives. Echoes of Incarceration Project has produced a video that provides insight into some of the struggles caregivers face because of parental incarceration. Through my research, I

A general trend is common, regardless of the source of information, concerning the effects of parental incarceration on children, and that is that there are many factors that contribute to a child’s emotional and behavioral outcomes. When assessing the potential emotional and behavioral outcomes of children with incarcerated parents we must first understand that there are contextual risk factors that play a role as well. Contextual risk factors are poverty, poor parenting, delinquent peers or siblings, physical and emotional abuse. These risk factors make it almost impossible to pinpoint the emotional and behavioral effects that can be attributed solely to parental incarceration. Despite this arduous task, many researches have attempted to isolate the effects of parental incarceration seen in children, I will summarize a few below. According to research conducted by Phillips, Burns, Wagner, Kramer, and Robbins, and published in their paper, “Parental Incarceration Among Adolescents

When considering the effects of parental incarceration on children we must look at a major factor and that is the gender of the incarcerated parent.  Ross D. Parke and Alison Clarke-Stewart stress the importance of this throughout their paper, " Effects of Parental Incarceration on Young Children ." According to Parke and Clarke-Stewart, fathers account for 90% of incarcerated parents. They discuss several effects of parental incarceration that are directly impacted by the gender of the parent. First, they analyze the living arrangements at the time of incarceration.  Noting that more than half of the children are already living with someone other than their biological parent. As to be expected, the half that is living with a biological parent is living with their mother. The authors conclude their assessment of living arrangements by stating that, consequently, this is not something typically considered when evaluating the effects of parental incarceration on children. Sec