Maternal Incarceration and Children's Educational Performance: Variation by Children's Living Arrangements

• In Event: 20480 - Education and Society: Institutional Interactions and Reciprocal Influences

Abstract

The increased involvement of women in the Criminal Legal System since 1980 has had profound implications for families across the United States, but especially for their children. Although research on parental incarceration and children’s educational attainment is extensive, suggesting negative associations, research on maternal incarceration is scarce, with a few of them suggesting null-average effects. Given that maternal incarceration often triggers changes in children's living arrangements, and these are of great relevance when analyzing their educational outcomes, this study examines whether the average null associations between maternal incarceration and children’s educational outcomes obscure heterogeneity across children's living arrangements. Drawing on the 2021 version of the Wisconsin Administrative Data Core (WADC), a linked administrative database, I test whether living arrangements moderate the relationship between maternal incarceration and children's education performance, measured by their standardized test scores in math and reading, and attendance rates, from grades 3 to 11. Results suggest a null association between maternal CLS contact and math test scores. However, compared to children living with at least one biological parent, experiencing custodial and noncustodial CLS contact and living with grandparents is associated with better performance in reading test scores. Living with grandparents, other relatives, or nonrelatives when experiencing maternal CLS contact is also associated with higher attendance rates, compared to children living with either biological parent. I discuss potential mechanisms that explain these findings.

Author

• Renzo Andres Fernandez Escobar, Pennsylvania State University