Over one-quarter of all children under 21 years of age have one of their parents living outside of their household. When this occurs, it is often the legal obligation of the noncustodial parent to provide financial support to help pay for the costs associated with raising their children. This report provides an overview of these children and their custodial parents, including their socioeconomic characteristics and the types and amount of child support received from noncustodial parents.
Research to date provides little information about effects on children when fathers return home from prison or jail, especially whether children’s behavioral problems persist when the father returns. To help fill this gap, this brief explores children’s behaviors when a father is incarcerated and when he is released. Authors seek to understand whether the negative child outcomes from parental incarceration persist even after parents return home. (Author abstract modified)
Unpublished Paper
Paternal incarceration has consistently been linked with aggression and acting-out in children, yet mechanisms underlying these behavioral problems remain unclear. Identifying these paths is essential for understanding how incarceration contributes to intergenerational disadvantage and determining how best to mitigate these collateral consequences for children. This article tests the extent to which changes incarceration imposes on children’s families after incarceration fill this important gap. Two key findings emerge from structural equation models using the longitudinal Fragile Families…
Relationships between children and their parents are the foundation on which children learn how to form and sustain healthy relationships. Disrupting those relationships—by losing a parent to incarceration, for example—can have long-term effects on children and may lead to antisocial behavior, poor school performance, and physical and mental health problems. To mitigate the risks of parental incarceration for children, some correctional agencies offer parent-child visits in prisons or jails. There are several types of parent-child visits, but many experts believe contact visits, where the…
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Journal Article In the second half of the 20th century, the United States experienced a massive increase in incarceration. In response to this growth, a burgeoning scholarship has sought to explore the collateral consequences of incarceration for young children. However, this scholarship has less frequently explored the impact of incarceration on long-term outcomes, how incarceration experienced in periods other than early childhood impacts children, and whether the incarceration of family members other than parents has negative implications for children. Using data from the children of the mothers in the…
Report, Other
This paper discusses three key policy areas regarding incarcerated mothers and fathers in Oregon: prison nurseries and community-based residential parenting programs; foster care laws; and parenting programs for incarcerated fathers. After reviewing background and best practices associated with policy implementation in each area, the paper explores ways in which policymakers, stakeholders, and advocates might address each policy area in Oregon, and suggests the formation of a legislative task force to address these issues. It emphasizes the need for increased policy attention to be focused on…
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Journal Article This study extended work on the consequences of incarceration for families by linking parents’ incarcerations to their material support of children entering adulthood. It examined two categories of support, parental transfers of cash and shared housing, that are known deficits among young children of incarcerated parents and that play important roles in young adult attainment and well-being. Propensity score analyses of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N [Wave3] = 14,023; N [Wave4] = 14,361) revealed that previously incarcerated mothers were less likely to give…
Much of the success of the Federal child support program is contingent upon the ability or willingness of noncustodial parents (NCPs) to provide financial support for their children. As a result, OCSE has an established track record of supporting demonstration and research projects focused on testing innovative program practices that enable NCPs to assume personal responsibility (financial and emotional) for their children. Highlights of numerous demonstration and research projects funded by this office in recent years. This report contains information on projects related to: Fatherhood and…
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Journal Article This special issue contains articles that explore how disadvantaged young men are faring in the face of low educational achievement, joblessness, out-of-wedlock childbearing, incarceration, and in the face of the Great Recession. An introductory article reviews social and economic forces facing young fathers, and the following four articles outline the economic status of low-income men and fathers. The deteriorating labor market prospects for low-skilled men in the United States is discussed, as well as young disadvantaged men as fathers, the relationship contexts of young disadvantaged…
This paper introduces the major themes associated with young disadvantaged men, including low educational achievement, joblessness, out-of-wedlock childbearing, and incarceration. By age 30, between 68 percent and 75 percent of young men with a high school degree or less are fathers (NLSY). Half of them are married when their first child is born and far fewer continue their education post-high school. The paper briefly reviews four major forces that help shape social and economic outcomes for young men who are fathers and for their partners and children: employment and earnings prospects;…
