What are the factors of parental incarceration that may increase risk of poor emotional and mental health in children of prisoners?

• Date: 26 September 2023
• Pages: 724-742
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-05-2022-0031
• Published date: 26 September 2023
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Prisoner health,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice
• Author: Matthew Charles Thorne,Nick de Viggiani,Emma Plugge

What are the factors of parental

incarceration that may increase risk of

poor emotional and mental health in

children of prisoners?

Matthew Charles Thorne, Nick de Viggiani and Emma Plugge

Abstract

Purpose –Globallymillions of children have a parent whois imprisoned. Research suggeststhat this has

an adverse impact on the child and imprisonmentof a parent is considered to be an adverse childhood

experience (ACE). Parental incarceration will not only affect the child but the entire householdand may

result in further ACEs such as household dysfunction and parental separation making this group of

children particularly vulnerable. This scoping review aims to adopt an international perspective to

comprehensively examine the extent range and nature of literature both publishedand grey relating to

parentalincarceration and the potential impacton children’s emotional and mental health.

Design/methodology/approach –In this scoping review, the five stages identified by Arksey and

O’Malley (2005)were used including identifyingthe research question, identifyingrelevant studies, study

selection, charting data, collating, summarising and reporting results. In addition, the included studies

were appraisedfor quality using methodology-specifictools. A critical narrative synthesiswas adopted to

presentfindings and discussion.

Findings –Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Of the included studies, eight were retrieved from

peer-reviewed journalsand one from grey literature searching. Five categorieswith subcategories were

identified affectingchildren’s mental health: 1) Relationships:parent and incarcerated child relationship;

facilitators and barriers to maintaining contact; 2) Family structure; maternal or paternal incarceration;

living arrangements during parental incarceration; 3) Children’s emotions: emotional recognition and

regulation; resilience;4) Prison stigma: social stigma; shame and secrecy; 5) Structuraldisadvantages:

poverty;race/ethnicity.

Originality/value –This scoping review has highlighted how the imprisonment of a parent negatively

affects their children’s emotional and mental health. Factors negatively impacting children’s emotional

and mental health are interrelated and complex. Further research is required, including differences

between paternaland maternal incarceration; impact of genderand age of child; poverty as an ACE and

prison exacerbatingthis; and effects of ethnicity and race. An important policy directionis in developing

an effective way of capturingthe parental status of a prisoner to ensure that the child and familyreceive

neededsupport.

Keywords Child, Prison, Parent, Health, Mental health, Emotional well-being, Incarceration, Scoping review

Paper type Literature review

Background

Global prison population

The global prison population stands at nearly 11 million people (Walmsley, 2018). Most

imprisoned people are male; however, the proportion of women imprisoned has increased

significantly since 2000 by around 53%, in contrast to males at approximately 19%

(Walmsley, 2017). Most incarceratedpeople are from disadvantaged backgrounds with low

Matthew Charles Thorne

and Nick de Viggiani are

both based at the

Department of Health and

Social Sciences, University

of the West of England,

Bristol, UK.

Emma Plugge is based at

the Faculty of Medicine,

University of Southampton,

Southampton, UK.

Received 18 May 2022

Revised 24 December 2022

Accepted 28 July 2023

PAGE 724 jINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRISONER HEALTH jVOL. 19 NO. 4 2023, pp. 724-742, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1744-9200 DOI 10.1108/IJPH-05-2022-0031

or no income prior to incarceration (Parliament UK, 2018;The Brookings Institution, 2018).

Having a criminal record increases the risk of poverty due to discrimination and fewer job

opportunities (Hills et al., 2019),potentially resulting in a cycle of poverty and crime.

Identifying children of prisoners

Penal Reform International (2020) estimates that millions of children globally have an

incarcerated parent and their rights are largely unacknowledged within criminal justice

systems worldwide. Few countries, including the USA and UK, have reliable reporting

systems to capture parental status on entry to prison (Crest, 2019;Robertson et al.,2016;

Shlafer, Duwe and Hindt, 2019), creating a “hidden population” of children of prisoners

(Prison Reform Trust, 2018;Nesmith and Ruhland, 2008;Trotter, Flynnand Baidawi, 2017).

Parental incarceration and adverse childhood experiences

Parental incarceration is an adverse childhood experience (ACE), a traumatic event in a

child’s life, which can cause long lasting psychological and/or physical harm (World Health

Organization, 2018). Childrenwho experience multiple ACEs are more likely to participate in

drug/alcohol misuse, risky sexual behaviours, criminal behaviour (Felitti et al.,1998) and be

imprisoned during their lifetime (Farrington et al.,2006;Reavis et al.,2013;Public Health

Wales NHS Trust, 2015). In addition, children exposed to an ACE are more likely to attempt

suicide in adulthood, with multiple ACEs tripling this risk (Thompson, Kingree and Lamis,

2019). Although found across all populations, ACEs are more common in areas of

deprivation (Walsh et al.,2019;CDC, 2019a), which itself is linked to imprisonment

(Houchin, 2005). Parental incarceration will not only affect the child but also the entire

household and may result in further ACEs, such as household dysfunction and parental

separation, making this groupof children particularly vulnerable (Turney, 2014).

Reported negative impacts of parental incarceration on children’s mental health include

disruptive behaviour disorders (Phillips et al.,2002), stigma, embarrassment and adversity

(Murray and Farrington, 2008), post-traumatic stress and depressionand anxiety (Lee et al.,

2012).

To date there has been no systematic examination of the evidence that critically considers

the factors of parental incarceration that may increase risk of poor emotional and mental

health in children of prisoners, at all stages of their development. This scoping review aims

to fill that knowledge gap.

Methods

A scoping review is a comprehensive process to search and map the type and extent of

evidence on a phenomenon of interest, key concepts are then explored and evidence

synthesised to present a cohesive picture of current research to identify potentialgaps and

areas for further research (Colquhounet al.,2014).

In this scoping review, the five stages identified by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) were used

including identifying the research question, identifying relevant studies, study selection,

charting data, collating, summarising and reporting results. A robust and comprehensive

method to search for literature was adopted to ensure the process was transparent and

replicable (Colquhoun et al.,2014). The research team and information specialists

discussed the search terms to ensure that the search captured all relevant literature on the

chosen topic. Four individual key terms(child, prison, parent and health) were chosen to be

searched adjacent to each other. This ensured data retrieved were not burdensome in

terms of unrelated results, for example identifying the parent’s health rather than the

children. The result was a search strategy suitably sensitive to capture the area of enquiry,

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