Exploring the Impact of Parental Justice Involvement on the Health of their Children

• In Event: Poster Session 1

Abstract

Many families and their children face different challenges due to parental justice involvement (such as prison, probation, or parole) in the U.S. Research shows that there is a mostly positive relationship between justice involvement and adverse health outcomes. However, the literature has a limited number of studies on children's health due to parental justice involvement. The aim of the current study is to explore the relationship between parental justice involvement and their children’s health outcomes. We will use the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study data, collected at wave 7 to investigate whether there is any relationship between parental justice involvement and the health of their children. As an analytic strategy, we plan to apply bivariate and multivariate analyses. As a result of our preliminary analysis, we predict that children with justice-involved parents will have poorer health conditions (such as depression, anxiety, drug use) compared to their peers. We also assume that the crime involvement rates of these children will be related to parental justice involvement. Lastly, we will discuss some suggestions for future research.

Authors

• Fadime Gokce Karaaslan, University of Central Florida

• Jason Ford, University of Central Florida