Parental Incarceration and Offspring’s Negative Self-feelings: The Role of Attachment and Other Mediators

• In Event: 600 - Section on Crime, Law and Deviance Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Incarceration and Health

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the effect of parental incarceration on child’s negative self-feelings. We compare maternal and paternal incarceration and identify the mechanisms by which parental incarceration affects one’s negative self-feelings. We consider emotional and physical closeness to parents, peer deviance and substance use, and one’s own deviance and substance use as potential mechanisms to explain the relationship between parental incarceration and negative self-feelings. We use a unique multigenerational longitudinal data KLAMS to test our hypotheses. We find that paternal and maternal incarceration increase negative self-feelings in a similar manner. Most of the increase in negative self-feelings due to parental incarceration is explained by reduced attachment to parents; increased peer deviance and substance use, and increased deviance by the offspring him/herself.

Author

• Xavier Serna, Texas A&M University