Predictors of Parent-Child Contact During a Parent’s Incarceration

ABSTRACT

Over 2 million people are currently incarcerated – the majority of whom are parents to minor children. The reentry process is often difficult for parents as they navigate reentry challenges such as finding housing and employment while also trying to develop and reestablish relationships with their children. Increased parent-child contact during incarceration is associated with improved incarceration and reentry outcomes for both the parents and their children. Using survey data from 252 parents exiting the prison system, this study uses structural equation modeling to examine predictors of parent-child contact during incarceration. Findings suggest incarcerated parents have higher levels of contact with their children when the parents had less exposure to childhood adversities such as parental incarceration, foster care, and group home placement.  Mothers display higher levels of contact with children than fathers; similarly, younger parents display higher levels of contact than older, as do those who had recent contact in the month prior to incarceration compared to those who did not. These findings highlight specific factors and populations for practitioners to target to increase the level of parent-child contact during incarceration.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental incarceration
• parent-child contact
• parenting
• prison
• visitation
• foster care

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our appreciation to Sponsors, Inc., especially the administrators and staff of the Mentoring Program and to all participants who participated in the study. We are also grateful to the feedback and assistance from University of Oregon doctoral student Irin Mannan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

Data can be made available upon request to the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

Support for this project was provided by the Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant No. 2015-CY-BX-0019 and the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission.