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The Prospective Effects of Caregiver Parenting on Behavioral Health Outcomes for Children with Incarcerated Parents: a Family Resilience Perspective

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Abstract

Rates of parental incarceration in the USA have increased dramatically over the past four decades. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study identified parental incarceration as one of several risk factors related to multiple health outcomes during childhood and adulthood. Parents and other caregivers are widely regarded as sources of resilience for children experiencing adversity, yet few studies have examined caregivers’ parenting practices as sources of resilience for children with incarcerated parents. This study used secondary data from a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of the prison-based parent management training program Parenting Inside Out (PIO). Specifically, it included 149 caregivers (i.e., the non-incarcerated parent, extended family member, or other adult who provides the day-to-day caretaking of a child during parental incarceration) of children aged 2–14 years whose incarcerated parents were randomly assigned to receive PIO or the control condition. Path analysis was used to examine associations between caregivers’ parenting, social support, self-efficacy, and change in child internalizing and externalizing symptoms across a 6-month period. Direct effects of caregivers’ parenting were found on improvements in child behavioral health from baseline (conducted when the parent was incarcerated) to the 6-month follow-up (conducted after most parents had been released). Indirect effects were found for caregiver social support and self-efficacy. The findings highlight the importance of caregivers’ adaptive parenting as a protective resource for children who experience parental incarceration and have implications for the design of preventive interventions for this underserved population.

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Data Availability

The de-identified data that support the findings of this study may be made available from the trial PI (JME), upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the parents and caregivers who participated in this study for their willingness to share their experiences with us; to the leadership and staff members of the Oregon Department of Corrections and of each of the participating correctional facilities for their engagement and support; to the leadership and staff members of The Pathfinders Network of Portland, Oregon for their partnership in conducting this study; and to the members of the Parent Child Study research team at the Oregon Social Learning Center of Eugene, Oregon.

Funding

Funding for the Parent Child Study was provided by Grants MH46690 and MH65553 from the Division of Epidemiology and Services Research, NIMH; by Grant HD054480 from the Social and Affective Development/Child Maltreatment and Violence, NICHD, U.S. PHS; by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation; and by the legislature of the State of Oregon. O’Hara’s involvement in the preparation of this manuscript was supported by a career development award (K01MH120321) from NIMH. Rhodes and Blake’s involvement was supported by a training grant (2T32DA039772) from NIDA. Thomas’ involvement was supported by ASU’s Substance use and Addiction Translational Research Network (SATRN). Wolchik’s work on this paper was supported by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD094334).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, 425 N. 5th St, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, USA

    Cady Berkel & Nalani Thomas

  2. REACH Institute, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    Cady Berkel, Karey O’Hara, C. Aubrey Rhodes, Austin Blake, Nalani Thomas, Liza Hita & Sharlene Wolchik

  3. New College, Arizona State University, Glendale, AZ, USA

    Karey O’Hara & Liza Hita

  4. Texas Center for Equity Promotion, College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA

    J. Mark Eddy

  5. Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    C. Aubrey Rhodes, Austin Blake & Sharlene Wolchik

  6. Klamath Tribes Judiciary, The Klamath Tribes, Chiloquin, OR, USA

    Danita Herrera

  7. Oregon Community Programs, Eugene, OR, USA

    Alice C. Wheeler

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  1. Cady Berkel
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  2. Karey O’Hara
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  9. Alice C. Wheeler
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  10. Sharlene Wolchik
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Correspondence to Cady Berkel.

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Ethics Approval

This trial was designed in accordance with the basic ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, justice, and non-maleficence and conducted in accordance with the rules of Good Clinical Practice outlined in the most recent Declaration of Helsinki. The project was approved by the Oregon Social Learning Center Institutional Review Board (IRB00000586). The use of deidentified secondary data was approved by the Arizona State University Institutional Review Board (IRB00013797; STUDY00013797).

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Berkel, C., O’Hara, K., Eddy, J.M. et al. The Prospective Effects of Caregiver Parenting on Behavioral Health Outcomes for Children with Incarcerated Parents: a Family Resilience Perspective. Prev Sci 24, 1198–1208 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-023-01571-9

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