Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Jailed Parents and their Young Children: Residential Instability, Homelessness, and Behavior Problems

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Child and Family Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study examined family disruption in the form of jailed parents’ housing instability in the year leading up to their most recent incarceration, including periods of homelessness with and without their children, and links between parental housing instability and children’s behavior problems. Using the Family Stress Proximal Process Model to understand the links between stressors related to family disruption and child outcomes, the study analyzed data from interviews and surveys with 165 jailed fathers and mothers with young children (age 2–6 years) regarding jailed parents’ reports of housing instability during the 12 months prior to their incarceration and child behavior problems. Analyses showed that housing instability, homelessness, and recidivism in jailed parents were relatively common, with a significant proportion of the disruptions occurring with young children, although many disruptions involved parental absence from children. Results indicated that the more months that parents lived with their children prior to incarceration in jail during the past year, the less housing instability the parents experienced. Additionally, multiple regression analyses revealed that more housing instability experienced by parents in the year leading up to their incarceration in jail were associated with elevations in children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. These results have implications for future research that explores family disruption as a mechanism in understanding recidivism and homelessness among adults and risk for child behavior problems in families affected by parental incarceration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abidin, R. R. (1995). Manual for the parenting stress index. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2000). ASEBA preschool forms & profiles: An integrated system of multi-informant assessment. Burlington, VT: ASEBA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). ASEBA school age forms and profiles. Burlington, VT: ASEBA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arditti, J. A. (2016). A family stress-proximal process model for understanding the effects of parental incarceration on children and their families. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 5(2), 65–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arditti, J. A. (2003). Locked doors and glass walls: Family visiting at a local jail. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 8, 115–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bassuk, E. L., DeCandia, C. J., Beach, C. A., & Berman, F. (2014). America’s Youngest Outcasts 2014. The National Center on Family Homelessness, 1–124. https://doi.org/10.1037/e551162013-001.

  • Bassuk, E. L., Rubin, L., & Lauriat, A. S. (1986). Characteristics of sheltered homeless families. American Journal of Public Health, 76(9), 1097–1101.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bastaits, K., Ponnet, K., & Mortelmans, D. (2012). Parenting of divorced fathers and the association with children’s self-esteem. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(12), 1643–1656.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Braver, S. L., Ellman, I. M., & Fabricius, W. V. (2003). Relocation of children after divorce and children’s best interests: New evidence and legal considerations. Journal of Family Psychology, 17(2), 206.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U., & Ceci, S. J. (1994). Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: A bioecological model. Psychological Review, 101(4), 568–586.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M., & Bloom, B. (2009). Reentry and Renegotiating Motherhood: Maternal Identity and Success on Parole. Crimean & Delinquency, 55(2), 313–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carson, E., & Anderson, E. (2016). Prisoners in 2015. U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1–35.

  • Casey, E. C., Shlafer, R. J., & Masten, A. S. (2015). Parental incarceration as a risk factor for children in homeless families. Family Relations, 64(4), 490–504.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, R., & Wardrip, K. (2011). The economic and fiscal benefits of affordable housing. Planning Commissioners Journal, 83, 1–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, R., & Wallace, S. (2013). The impact of incarceration on food insecurity among households with children. Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Research Paper Series No. 13–05.

  • Crnic, K. A., Gaze, C., & Hoffman, C. (2005). Cumulative parenting stress across the preschool period: Relations to maternal parenting and child behaviour at age 5. Infant and Child Development: An International Journal of Research and Practice, 14(2), 117–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Desmond, M. (2016). Evicted: Poverty and profit in the American city. New York, NY: Broadway Books.

  • Durose, M., Cooper, A., & Snyder, H. (2014, April). Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 30 States in 2005: Patterns from 2005 to 2010. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4986.

  • Dwyer Emory, A. (2018). Explaining the consequences of paternal incarceration for children’s behavioral problems. Family Relations, 67(2), 302–319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G. W., & Wachs, T. D. (2010). Chaos and its influence on children’s development. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, P. J., Henry, D. B., Schoeny, M., Taylor, J., & Chavira, D. (2014). Developmental timing of housing mobility: Longitudinal effects on externalizing behaviors among at-risk youth. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 53(2), 199–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foster, H., & Hagan, J. (2009). The mass incarceration of parents in America: Issues of race/ethnicity, collateral damage to children, and prisoner reentry. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 623(1), 179–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geller, A., & Curtis, M. A. (2011). A sort of homecoming: Incarceration and the housing security of urban men. Social Science Research, 40(4), 1196–1213.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Geller, A., Garfinkel, I., Cooper, C. E., & Mincy, R. B. (2009). Parental incarceration and child wellbeing: Implications for urban families. Social Science Quarterly, 90(5), 1186–1202.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Geller, A., Garfinkel, I., & Western, B. (2011). Paternal incarceration and support for children in fragile families. Demography, 48(1), 25–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-010-0009-9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Geller, A., Cooper, C. E., Garfinkel, I., Schwartz-Soicher, O., & Mincy, R. B. (2012). Beyond absenteeism: Father incarceration and child development. Demography, 49(1), 49–76.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Giordano, P. C., Cernkovich, S. A., & Rudolph, J. L. (2002). Gender, crime, and desistance: Toward a theory of cognitive transformation. American Journal of Sociology, 107(4), 990–1064.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glaze, L. E., & Maruschak, L. M. (2008). Bureau of Justice statistics special report: Parents in prisonand their minor children. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 1–25.

  • Greenberg, G., & Rosenheck, R. (2008). Jail incarceration, homelessness, and mental health: A national study. Psychiatric Services, 59(2), 170.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gricius, M., Wright, K., Chamberlain, A., & Wang, X. (2016). Parental incarceration: Does having minor children have an effect on recidivism?,ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

  • Grogger, J. (1995). The effect of arrests on the employment and earnings of young men. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110(1), 51–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harding, D. J., & Winship, C. (2016). Population growth, migration, and changes in the racial differential in imprisonment in the United States, 1940–1980. Social Sciences, 5(3), 32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haskins, A. R. (2014). Unintended consequences: Effects of paternal incarceration on child school readiness and later special education placement. Sociological Science, 1, 141.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Haskins, A. R. (2015). Paternal incarceration and child-reported behavioral functioning at age 9. Social Science Research, 52, 18–33.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ihrke, D. K., & Faber, C. S. (2012). Geographical mobility: 2005 to 2010. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaffee, S., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Belsky, J. A. Y., & Silva, P. (2001). Why are children born to teen mothers at risk for adverse outcomes in young adulthood? Results from a 20-year longitudinal study. Development and Psychopathology, 13(2), 377–397.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • James, D. J., & Glaze, L. E. (2006). Mental health problems of prison and jail inmates. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1−12.

  • Johnson, R.C. (2009). Ever-increasing levels of parental incarceration and the consequences for children. In S. Raphael and M.A. Stoll (Eds.), Do Prisons Make Us Safer? The Benefits and Costs of the Prison Boom (pp. 177-206). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

  • Kirkman, M., Keys, D., Bodzak, D., & Turner, A. (2010). “Are we moving again this week?” Children’s experiences of homelessness in Victoria, Australia. Social Science & Medicine, 70(7), 994–1001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loper, A. B., Carlson, L. W., Levitt, L., & Scheffel, K. (2009). Parenting stress, alliance, child contact, and adjustment of imprisoned mothers and fathers. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 48(6), 483–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merrick, M. T., Henly, M., Turner, H. A., David-Ferdon, C., Hamby, S., Kacha-Ochana, A., & Finkelhor, D. (2018). Beyond residential mobility: A broader conceptualization of instability and its impact on victimization risk among children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 79, 485–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metraux, S., & Culhane, D. P. (2006). Recent incarceration history among a sheltered homeless population. Crimean & Delinquency, 52(3), 504–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minton, T. D., & Zeng, Z. (2016, December). Jail Inmates in 2015 - Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji15.pdf.

  • Murphey, D., & Cooper, P. M. (2015). Parents behind bars. What happens to their children? Washington, DC: Child Trends, 1–20.

  • Parke, R. D., & Clarke, K. A. (2001, December). From Prison to Home: The Effect of Incarceration and Reentry on Children, Families, and Communities. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/prison-home-effect-incarceration-and-reentry-children-families-and-communities.

  • Phillips, S. D., Erkanli, A., Keeler, G. P., Costello, E. J., & Angold, A. (2006). Disentangling the risks: Parent criminal justice involvement and children’s exposure to family risks. Criminology & Public Policy, 5(4), 677–702.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poehlmann-Tynan, J., & Arditti, J. A. (2017). Developmental and family perspectives on incarcerated parents. In C. Wildeman, A. R. Haskins & J. Poehlmann-Tynan (Eds.), When parents are incarcerated. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poehlmann-Tynan, J., et al. (2018). Incarcerated parents. In the Handbook of contemporary family psychology. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter, L. C., & King, R. D. (2015). Absent fathers or absent variables? A new look at paternal incarceration and delinquency. Journal of Research in Crimean and Delinquency, 52(3), 414–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rafferty, Y., Shinn, M., & Weitzman, B. C. (2004). Academic achievement among formerly homeless adolescents and their continuously housed peers. Journal of School Psychology, 42, 179–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raghunathan, T. E., Lepkowski, J. M., Van Hoewyk, J., & Solenberger, P. (2001). A multivariate technique for multiply imputing missing values using a sequence of regression models. Surveymethodology, 27(1), 85–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roy, A., Jouandot, D., Cho, K. H., & Kim, J. H. (2014). Understanding the mechanism of glucose‐induced relief of Rgt1‐mediated repression in yeast. FEBS Open Bio, 4(1), 105–111.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, S. A., Finders, J. K., & McClelland, M. M. (2015). Residential mobility, inhibitory control, and academic achievement in preschool. Early Education and Development, 26(2), 189–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, S. A., & Lipscomb, S. T. (2016). Longitudinal associations between residential mobility and early academic skills among low-income children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36, 190–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shlafer, R. J., Gerrity, E., Ruhland, E., & Wheeler, M. (2013). Children with incarcerated parents: Considering children’s outcomes in the context of family experience. St. Paul: Children, Youth & Family Consortium, University of Minnesota.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stahler, G. J., Mennis, J., Belenko, S., Welsh, W. N., Hiller, M. L., & Zajac, G. (2013). Predicting recidivism for released state prison offenders: Examining the influence of individual and neighborhood characteristics and spatial contagion on the likelihood of reincarceration. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 40(6), 690–711.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Tasca, M., Rodriguez, N., & Zatz, M. S. (2011). Family and residential instability in the context of paternal and maternal incarceration. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 38(3), 231–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The State of Homelessness in America. (2016). Retrieved May 10, 2017, from http://www.endhomelessness.org/page/-/files/2016%20State%20Of%20Homelessness.pdf.

  • Tillyer, M. S., & Vose, B. (2011). Social ecology, individual risk, and recidivism: A multilevel examination of main and moderating influences. Journal of Criminal Justice, 39, 452–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Travis, J., Western, B., & Redburn, S. (2014). The growth of incarceration in the United States: Exploring causes and consequences. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsemberis, S., McHugo, G., Williams, V. F., Hanrahan, P., & Stefancic, A. (2007). Measuring homelessness and residential stability: The residential time-line follow-back inventory. Journal of Community Psychology, 35(1), 29–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tuerk, E. H., & Loper, A. B. (2006). Contact between incarcerated mothers and their children: Assessing parenting stress. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 43(1), 23–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turney, K. (2012). Pathways of disadvantage: Explaining the relationship between maternal depression and children’s problem behaviors. Social Science Research, 41(6), 1546–1564.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Turney, K., & Wildeman, C. (2017). Maternal incarceration and the transformation of urban family life. Social Forces, 1–27.

  • U.S. Department Of Housing And Urban Development. (2011). The Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. SSRN Electronic Journal, 1–79.

  • United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 2011 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. November 2012. https://www.abtassociates.com/sites/default/files/migrated_files/d379e991-39bd-4f98-907a-7270d66ac779.pdf.

  • United States Census Bureau. U.S Mover rate Remains Stable at About 12 Percent Since 2008, Census Bureau Reports. (2015, March 18). Retrieved May 8, 2017, from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-47.html.

  • Van Buuren, S. (2007). Multiple imputation of discrete and continuous data by fully conditional specification. Statistical methods in medical research, 16(3), 219–242.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, P., & Rabuy, B. (2017). Mass Incarceration: The WholePie 2017. Prison Policy Initiative.

  • Western, B., & Petit, B. (2010). Collateral costs: Incarceration’s effect on economic mobility. Pew Charitable Trusts.

  • Wildeman, C. (2014). Parental incarceration, child homelessness, and the invisible consequences of mass imprisonment. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 651(1), 74–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wildeman, C., & Wakefield, S. (2014). The long arm of the law: The concentration of incarceration in families in the era of mass incarceration. The Journal of Gender Race & Justice, 17, 367.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wildeman, C. (2010). Paternal incarceration and children’s physically aggressive behaviors: Evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Social Forces, 89(1), 285–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wildeman, C., Schnittker, J., & Turney, K. (2012). Despair by association? The mental health of mothers with children by recently incarcerated fathers. American Sociological Review, 77(2), 216–243.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wildeman, C. (2013). Parental incarceration, child homelessness, and the invisible consequences of mass imprisonment. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 651(1), 74–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zilanawala, A., & Pilkauskas, N. V. (2012). Material hardship and child socioemotional behaviors: Differences by types of hardship, timing, and duration. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(4), 814–825.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ziol‐Guest, K. M., & McKenna, C. C. (2014). Early childhood housing instability and school readiness. Child Development, 85(1), 103–113.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

A portion of this research was conducted as part of the first author’s honors thesis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This research was supported a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21HD068581, PI: Poehlmann-Tynan) as well as a center grant from the National Institutes of Health that funds the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (P30HD03352, PI: Mailick). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. Special thanks to Racine, Dane, and Sauk County Sheriff’s offices and jail staff as well as University of Wisconsin Extension, especially Beverlee Baker and Mary Huser, for their support of the project and to the families who participated in this research.

Author Contributions

L.M.: wrote the first draft of the paper as part of his senior honors thesis. N.J.: assisted in data management and collaborated in writing the background information. C.B.: conducted jailed parent interviews and assisted with data entry and analysis. H.R.: added the housing timeline measure and conducted jailed parent interviews; assisted with data entry. L.W.: conducted jailed parent interviews. J.P.T.: designed the study, secured funding, responsible for IRB oversight, executed the study, supervised study personnel, assisted with data analyses, and contributed to the writing of each section.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Development and Family Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1130 Nancy Nicholas Hall, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Luke Muentner, Nicole Holder, Cynthia Burnson, Hilary Runion, Lindsay Weymouth & Julie Poehlmann-Tynan

Authors
  1. Luke Muentner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nicole Holder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cynthia Burnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hilary Runion
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Lindsay Weymouth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Julie Poehlmann-Tynan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luke Muentner.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. IRB approval for the study was issued by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Muentner, L., Holder, N., Burnson, C. et al. Jailed Parents and their Young Children: Residential Instability, Homelessness, and Behavior Problems. J Child Fam Stud 28, 370–386 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1265-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1265-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation