Put Me In! Supported by Science: Impacts of parental incarceration on executive functioning and academic achievement
My name is Lilia Kasdon and I am a Research Intern for Put Me In! I will be sharing some of my findings in this series of blog posts, Put Me In! Supported by Science.
If you missed last week’s post about Adverse Childhood Experiences, Positive Childhood Experiences, and health outcomes among CIPs, check it out here.
This week, I studied the effects of parental incarceration (PI) on executive functioning (EF), academic performance, and life outcomes. Mears & Siennick (2016) argue that “parental incarceration may constitute a turning point that holds the potential to negatively affect children as they progress into adulthood” (Mears & Siennick, 2016, p. 25). The literature in this area supports this concept of PI as a “turning point” in the lives of Children of Incarcerated Parents (CIPS), putting them at a higher risk for poor EF and academic achievement, as well as worse life outcomes. Using data from the 2016-2018 National Survey of Children’s Health, Testa & Jackson (2020) found that at three to five years old, CIPs are significantly less likely to meet developmental expectations in four domains: “early learning skills, self-regulation, social-emotional development, and physical health & motor development”(Testa & Jackson, 2020). The researchers found that CIPs have a 795% higher risk of failing to meet expectations in all four domains compared with children who do not have an incarcerated parent. Parental incarceration is also associated with decreased cognitive ability and working memory function (Johnson et al., 2022), as well as a higher risk of developing attention regulation deficits (Liu et al., 2024).
In addition to delayed development, including poor executive functioning, CIPs are also at a disadvantage in terms of academic achievement; they are less likely to be sufficiently prepared for school, to perform well in school, and to obtain higher education. Mears & Siennick (2016) identified that CIPs receive less formal education and are 33% less likely to reach higher education than their peers who have not experienced PI. Another study conducted in a Texas independent school district found that CIPs are more likely to repeat a grade and be suspended or expelled (Horton, 2022).
Parental incarceration affects an individual’s success beyond formal schooling, influencing their life trajectories into adulthood. In young adulthood, CIPs are more likely to engage in illegal activities themselves, such as illegal drug use, and are 26% more likely than non-CIPs to commit a crime (Mears & Siennick, 2016). In terms of economic outcomes, researchers identified a significant negative association between paternal incarceration and home ownership and a positive relationship between paternal incarceration and the use of public assistance (Miller & Barnes, 2015). Additionally, longitudinal studies have found that parental incarceration is associated with lower annual income, decreasing an individual's yearly earnings by an average of $2,953 (Mears & Siennick, 2016, p. 22). PI also leaves a lasting impact on CIPs’ relationships; they are more likely to “cohabit” with future partners, which has been associated with poorer relationship quality (Mears & Siennick, 2016).
The association between decreased EF, namely decreased self-regulation, may contribute to the poorer life outcomes experienced by CIPs. The 2011 Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a longitudinal study of 1,000 individuals from birth to 32 years of age, found that early childhood self-control, a component of self-regulation, is associated with improved life outcomes (Moffitt et al., 2011). The researchers identified a “gradient of self-control,” in which small increases in self-control yielded significantly better outcomes in terms of physical health and economic status, as well as a significantly decreased risk of unhealthy substance use, criminal activity, and justice system involvement (Moffitt et al., 2011, p. 2693). In conjunction with the literature on the impacts of parental incarceration, the Dunedin study highlights that interventions supporting the development of EF skills may be especially impactful in improving future quality of life for CIPs.
There is research — which I will discuss in a later post — supporting that youth sports involvement has the potential to boost executive functioning, including self-regulation. Therefore, through our mission to increase access to sports for CIPS, PMI! is also committing to improving enrolled children’s EF. As identified in the Dunedin study, these boosts in EF have the potential to drastically improve life outcomes for CIPs, highlighting the profound impact our work can have on the lives of these children.
Works cited:
Horton, K. B. (2022a). An overview of parental incarceration in African American students: The effects on socioeconomics, educational outcomes, school exclusion, and Juvenile Justice involvement. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 16(2), 259–267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-022-00504-y
Johnson, E. I., Planalp, E. M., & Poehlmann-Tynan, J. (2022). Parental Arrest and Child Behavior: Differential Role of Executive Functioning among Racial Subgroups. Journal of child and family studies, 31(7), 1933–1946. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02251-y
Liu, Q., Wang, X., Razza, R. A., & Vasilenko, S. A. (2024). Early adverse childhood experiences and preschoolers' attentional regulation: A latent class analysis. Child abuse & neglect, 149, 106703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106703
Mears, D. P., & Siennick, S. E. (2015). Young Adult Outcomes and the Life-Course Penalties of Parental Incarceration. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427815592452
Miller, H. V., & Barnes, J. C. (2015). The association between parental incarceration and health, education, and economic outcomes in young adulthood. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 40(4), 765–784. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-015-9288-4
Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., Houts, R., Poulton, R., Roberts, B. W., Ross, S., Sears, M. R., Thomson, W. M., & Caspi, A. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 2693–2698. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1010076108
Testa, A., & Jackson, D. B. (2021). Parental Incarceration and School Readiness: Findings From the 2016 to 2018 National Survey of Children's Health. Academic pediatrics, 21(3), 534–541. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2020.08.016