Finally, we present initial recommendations for children’s contact with incarcerated parents and suggest directions for future research.Ĭhildren’s Outcomes When Parents Are IncarceratedĬhildren of incarcerated parents are at risk for negative social and academic outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, substance abuse, adult offending and incarceration, truancy, and school failure (see Murray, Farrington, Sekol, & Olsen, 2009, for a quantitative review). We then summarize national trends regarding children’s contact with incarcerated parents and review recent research findings that have emerged.
To place contact issues in a broader context, we briefly summarize the literature examining outcomes of children with incarcerated parents and present a conceptual model to provide a framework within which to interpret findings about parent–child contact. Given these questions and concerns, our goal in this article is to present current research findings regarding visitation and other forms of contact that occur between children and their incarcerated parents. Family members as well as professionals (e.g., psychologists, attorneys, social workers) question whether children should have contact with incarcerated parents and express concerns about how and when contact occurs, who regulates contact, what types of contact are feasible and desirable, and the effects of contact (or lack thereof) on children. For a growing number of children, parent–child contact during the incarceration period is a key issue. However, the actual number of affected children is unknown because this information is not systematically collected by jails, corrections departments, schools, child welfare systems, or other systems. It is estimated that possibly millions of additional children have a parent in jail ( Kemper & Rivara, 1993 Western & Wildeman, 2009). In 2007, 1.7 million children had a parent in state or federal prison in the United States, an increase of 80% since 1991 ( Glaze & Maruschak, 2008).
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