Parental Incarceration and School Readiness among Preschool-age Children in the United States

• In Event: Caregiver Incarceration and Childhood Adaptation

Abstract

Introduction. Approximately five million children had a parent serving time in prison or jail in 2011-2012 (Murphey & Cooper, 2015). Adversities like parental incarceration can pose a considerable challenge for families to sustain the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships essential for optimal neurodevelopment during early childhood, with potential detriments to children’s social, behavioral, and cognitive skills (Haskins, 2014). One approach commonly assessed as a marker of on track development is school readiness, which reflects the range of skills important for successful transition into educational settings (Child Trends, 2019; Williams, et al., 2019). Characterizing school readiness for families facing parental incarceration may provide an early window into later-life educational and health disparities, and outline opportunities for intervention.

Methods. We analyzed responses from the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health, a nationally representative household survey of parents, to examine the association between jail incarceration of a parent/guardian and school readiness among children ages 3-5. School readiness was operationalized using an 18-item pilot measure, which captures developmentally-appropriate sub-scales for early learning skills, self-regulation, social-emotional development, and physical health/motor development that are summed to create an overall index (Ghandour, et al., 2019; Cronbach’s alpha=0.793). Applying survey weights to account for the complex sample design, we calculated univariate and bivariate statistics to characterize child, family, and community factors of children of incarcerated parent(s) vs. peers without an incarcerated parent. We then constructed theory- and data-driven multivariate logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of being on track for school readiness and its constituent scales.

Results. 245 of 6,803 children ages 3-5 had a parent who was incarcerated, amounting to a weighted estimate of 5.8% (95% CI: 4.6 - 7.5%) of U.S. children in this age group. There were significant differences in rates of parental incarceration by certain characteristics, including race/ethnicity, special healthcare need status, measures of family resources and stress, and community factors (Table 1). The prevalence of family protective factors was not significantly different between children of incarcerated parent(s) and their unaffected peers. Logistic regression models showed that parental incarceration was significantly negatively associated with being on track for school readiness and the four constituent subscales, but after adjusting for individual, family, and community characteristics, the differences were rendered non-significant (Table 2).

Discussion. Our findings document the presence and disproportionality of parental incarceration among preschoolers. On the whole, affected children are less likely to be on track for school readiness, but these associations did not hold after accounting for other influential factors – partially contrasting other literature (Haskins, 2014). Survey limitations such as the cross-sectional design, household-based sample, pilot school readiness measure, and jail-specific parental incarceration question preclude simple conclusions, and the null finding raises the possibility that parental incarceration impacts development through related factors (e.g., residential mobility). Regardless, additional studies leveraging causal-oriented, intersectional, and mixed-methods approaches could clarify our understanding of these relationships, and guide targets for interventions (e.g., family stress) to optimize school readiness despite contextual risks.

Authors

• Marvin So, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Presenting Author

• Leslie Salas-Hernández, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laurel Davis, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebecca J Shlafer, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author