Linking parental incarceration and family dynamics associated with intergenerational transmission: A life‐course perspective*

Abstract

Children experiencing parental incarceration face numerous additional disadvantages, but researchers have often relied on these other co‐occurring factors primarily as controls. In this article, we focus on the intimate links between crime and incarceration, as well as on the broader family context within which parental incarceration often unfolds. Thus, parents’ drug use and criminal behavior that precedes and may follow incarceration periods may be ongoing stressors that directly affect child well‐being. We also use our analyses to foreground mechanisms associated with social learning theories, including observations and communications that increase the child's risk for criminal involvement and other problem outcomes. These related family experiences often channel the child's own developing network ties (peers, romantic partners) that then serve as proximal influences. We explore these processes by drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from a study of the lives of a sample of respondents followed from adolescence to young adulthood, as well as on records searches of parents’ incarceration histories. Through our analyses, we find evidence that 1) some effects attributed to parental incarceration likely connect to unmeasured features of the broader family context, and b) together parental incarceration and the broader climate often constitute a tightly coupled package of family‐related risks linked to intergenerational continuities in criminal behavior and other forms of social disadvantage.

Desistance from Crime during the Transition to Adulthood: The Influence of Parents, Peers, and Shifts in Identity

“…Parent antisocial lifestyle is measured using a 19-item scale that was developed based on prior analysis of qualitative data (Giordano et al 2019). The items include the respondent’s retrospective report of family conflict including the accuracy of the following statements: “family members fought a lot,” “family members often criticized one another,” “family members sometimes got so angry that they threw things,” and “family members sometimes hit each other.” Respondents were also asked how often either one of their parents: “threw something at the other,” “pushed, shoved, or grabbed the other,” “slapped the other in the face or head with an open hand,” and “hit the other.” Additionally, during the first interview, parents were asked how often they “threatened to hit your child” and “pushed, grabbed, slapped, or hit your child.” They were also asked whether the following happened during their own teen years: “I was suspended or expelled from school,” “I got (someone) pregnant,” “I was arrested by the police,” “I drank alcohol,” and “I used drugs.” Finally, parents were asked how many times they had done the following in the past year: “used alcohol to get drunk,” “gone out to party with friends,” and “used drugs to get high (not because you were sick).” In addition to these items, we included an indicator of whether or not either parent had ever been incarcerated during the respondent’s lifetime.…”

Examining Change in Family Conflict and Family Violence After Release From Prison

“…Although existing work on incarceration and families has favored a theoretical focus on the collateral consequences of incarceration, a recent study by Giordano and colleagues (2019) places additional theoretical emphasis on the broader family context within which incarceration unfolds, noting that family life both before and after incarceration offers recurrent and observable aspects that influence behavior such as conflict and violence. The authors leveraged social learning theory to explain how a family member’s lived experience over a longer period may set up the conditions for various problematic behaviors.…”

“…The authors leveraged social learning theory to explain how a family member's lived experience over a longer period may set up the conditions for various problematic behaviors. Several ongoing conditions, including prior offending and antisocial behavior, have significant impacts on family life above and beyond one major life event such as an incarceration (Giordano et al, 2019). Similarly, we seek to examine how preexisting family support, family conflict, and family criminal justice history contribute to further conflict and violence while highlighting that incarceration experiences may also continue to shape family interactions.…”

“…Negative outcomes of a partner's incarceration may include relationship stress, dissolution of trust, infidelity, conflict, and violence (Comfort et al, 2005(Comfort et al, , 2018Harman et al, 2007). Some of these challenges may have been present prior to incarceration as part of the broader family dynamic (Giordano et al, 2019), but are likely to be exacerbated by limited family contact (Comfort et al, 2018).…”

“I Literally Roll With The Punches”: Black and Latinx Women Coping Through Parental Incarceration

“…Consequently, parental incarceration can become a reoccurring process of reunification and cycles of returns to jail or prison. Parental incarceration goes beyond just a discrete event, it is a process in the wake of other family life circumstances and incorporates the lived experiences prior to and after their parent's incarceration (e.g., family climate, parenting style, parent's problem behaviors; Giordano et al, 2019). Therefore, interpretations and emotional responses of parental incarceration goes beyond the specific event of imprisonment.…”