PROTOCOL: Parental Imprisonment: A systematic review of its effects on child antisocial behavior, crime and mental health

With rates of imprisonment growing rapidly in many Western industrialized countries (Walmsley, 2005), the effects of parental imprisonment on children is an issue of increasing social concern. In many countries, it is not known how exactly how many children have parents in prison. However, national inmate surveys in the United States show that 1.5 million children had a parent in State or Federal prison in 1999 (2.1 percent of the nation's children under eighteen), over half a million more than in 1991 (Mumola, 2000). Four key criminological theories suggest that parental imprisonment might cause an increase in child antisocial and criminal behavior (Hagan & Dinovitzer, 1999; Murray & Farrington, in press). First, social bonding theory suggests that parental imprisonment might harm children because parent-child separation disrupts children's attachment relations. Second, strain theory suggests that the loss of family income and other negative life events after parental imprisonment might cause offending behavior. Third, social control theory suggests that parental imprisonment might cause delinquency via reduced quality of care and supervision. And fourth, labeling theory suggests that social stigma and official bias following parental imprisonment may cause an increased probability of being charged and convicted for criminal behavior. These processes of attachment disruption, strain, poor quality child care, and stigma are also associated with adverse mental health outcomes for children (Garber, 2000; Harrington, 2002; Hinshaw & Cicchetti, 2000; Klein & Pine, 2002). Hence parental imprisonment might cause antisocial and criminal behavior and mental health problems for children. Two alternative theories suggest that parental imprisonment does not cause negative outcomes for children. First, even if children of prisoners have worse outcomes than their peers, this may be because of parental criminality and disadvantage prior to imprisonment, not because parental imprisonment itself is causal. Second, imprisonment of an abusive or antisocial parent might actually decrease children's likelihood of developing behavior problems because it removes a disruptive and antisocial influence from their lives. Existing evidence needs to be synthesized to evaluate these competing hypotheses. Parental imprisonment is not an intervention as typically studied in Campbell systematic reviews. It is not a deliberately implemented program aimed at reducing or preventing child delinquency. Instead it is a policy for convicted adults that may have unintended consequences for their children. Moreover, it has not been evaluated in randomized experiments, as have other criminal justice interventions. Instead, studies have been observational, using matched control groups and statistical balancing techniques to investigate possible effects on children. We think that, like other risk factors in criminology, parental imprisonment should be studied by investigating what is known about prediction and causation, and then investigating moderators of its effects. Thus, three key questions for research are: The implications for policy are as follows. If parental imprisonment is a predictor of negative life outcomes, children of prisoners may be recognized as a vulnerable population in need of support. If parental imprisonment is a cause of negative child outcomes, a range of sentencing changes and prison and social policies may be implemented to prevent its harmful effects (Murray & Farrington, 2006). By identifying moderators of prison effects, children most at risk of harm by parental imprisonment can be identified for more intensive support. By investigating moderators, resilience processes for children might also be identified. This could suggest specific kinds of support to increase children's resilience after parental imprisonment. Four existing reviews summarize research on the effects of parental imprisonment on children. Johnston (1995) reviewed 17 studies of children of prisoners and offenders. She reported that the rate of “behavioral problems” among children of prisoners and offenders ranged from 19% to 69% in these studies. However, the association between parental imprisonment and child outcomes was not reviewed, and study quality was not assessed in the review. Also, Johnston did not distinguish between studies of parental imprisonment and studies of parental criminality. Parental antisocial behavior is an important risk factor for children's own delinquency (Lipsey & Derzon, 1998). A key issue is whether parental imprisonment has additional effects on children. Hagan and Dinovitzer (1999) discussed theories that might link parental imprisonment and adverse child outcomes, and reviewed some of the empirical studies on this topic. They concluded that little is known about the effects of parental imprisonment on children, but speculated that the consequences may be severe, especially when mothers are imprisoned. Murray (2005) reviewed the effects of parental imprisonment on children reported in 43 empirical studies of diverse methodological quality. He found a range of problem behavior reported in the literature including: depression, anxiety, withdrawal, regression, clinging behavior, sleep problems, eating problems, hyperactivity, aggressive behavior, running away, truancy, poor school grades and delinquency. However, few studies used appropriate comparison groups, well-validated measures, or longitudinal follow-up to draw firm conclusions about the risks associated with parental imprisonment or its possible causal effects. Murray and Farrington (in press) conducted the most thorough review to date of the effects of parental imprisonment on children. They only included studies with comparison groups and sufficient information to calculate an effect size. They found eleven studies that met their inclusion criteria. They separated findings according to whether studies used (1) control groups selected to be representative of the general population, (2) matched control groups, or (3) samples in which children of prisoners and controls were both recruited from courts or clinics. Based on five studies using general population samples, they found that parental imprisonment was associated with about three times the odds of child antisocial-delinquent behavior and about twice the odds of mental health problems (compared to no parental imprisonment). The findings were mixed on whether parental imprisonment predicted adverse outcomes independently of background risks, and hence whether it might have a causal effect on children. Five studies used reasonably representative samples of prisoners’ children and controls to estimate the effects of parental imprisonment on children independently of background risks. Three studies found an effect of parental imprisonment on child antisocial behavior independently of background risks (Stanton, 1980; Murray and Farrington, 2005; Huebner and Gustafson, 2007), but two did not find an independent effect (Bor, McGee, and Fagan, 2004; Murray, Janson, and Farrington, 2007). Only one study examined the effects of parental imprisonment on child mental health using suitable controls (Murray and Farrington 2008). In this study, the association between parental imprisonment and poor mental health outcomes remained after controlling for parental criminality and child, family and socioeconomic risks. Murray and Farrington (in press) speculated that parental imprisonment might cause child antisocial behavior and mental health problems, but argued that firm causal conclusions could not be drawn from existing evidence. Murray and Farrington (in press) also reviewed possible moderators of the effects of parental imprisonment on children, but they found very few studies that analyzed how the effects of parental imprisonment differed according to child, family or social factors. Theory and existing evidence suggested that parental imprisonment might have more harmful effects for girls, children of ethnic minority, younger children, children experiencing maternal imprisonment (as opposed to paternal imprisonment), and children whose parents are imprisoned for longer periods or in more punitive social contexts. We are very clear that tight causal conclusions cannot be drawn from observational studies that are typical of this area of research. However, a distinction can be drawn between observational studies that simply assess the zero-order association between parental imprisonment and child outcomes, and studies that control for important confounding factors. Studies that control for important confounding factors provide some evidence for considering possible causal effects. While conclusions about causal effects must be very tentative based on such observational evidence, it is important to extract and summarize the best evidence available. In summary, according to existing reviews, most existing studies of parental imprisonment are mainly small-scale and of poor methodological quality, with low internal validity, and often lacking a comparison group. An important issue is whether it is worth conducting a systematic review when it appears there are few high quality studies. We think it is worthwhile for the following reasons. First, a systematic review may uncover high quality studies that were not found using less thorough searching methods. Second, more high quality studies may take a long time to appear, and policy-makers need interim evidence on which to consider their decisions. Third, if a systematic review demonstrates that high quality studies are lacking, this could encourage a new generation of primary research. Hence, even though it seems there are few high quality studies of parental imprisonment, it is still worth conducting the proposed review. The two main aims for the review are to assess evidence on whether parental imprisonment is a risk factor for negative child outcomes, and to assess evidence on the causal effects of parental imprisonment on children. A third aim of the review is to investigate how associations between parental imprisonment and child outcomes differ according to study features and participant characteristics (moderators). Whether or not parental imprisonment is a risk factor for child outcomes will be investigated by aggregating zero-order associations from studies comparing children of prisoners and children from the general population. The possible causal effects of parental imprisonment will be investigated by aggregating findings from studies using matched control group designs, or statistical controls for critical covariates. The main moderators we hope to investigate are: maternal versus paternal imprisonment, length of parental imprisonment, child sex, child age at parental imprisonment, short versus long term outcomes, the type of delinquent outcome (juvenile antisocial behavior, adult antisocial behavior, juvenile crime, adult crime), the type of mental health outcome (anxiety, depression, or general internalizing problems), and country of study. We will also analyze methodological factors as possible moderators (such as type of study design, study methodological quality and publication type). Based on the studies we have collected so far, further moderator analyses will not be possible. However, if enough studies are retrieved with results on other variables that might increase child resilience after parental imprisonment, we will include them in our analyses. For example, moderators such as social support, quality of parenting, family income, and frequency of child-parent contact during imprisonment could be investigated. The proposed systematic review will extend the narrative review of Murray and Farrington (in press) on these topics in three main ways. First, the systematic review will use a more thorough search strategy to locate all relevant studies. Second, studies will be more systematically evaluated regarding their methodological quality. Third, meta-analysis will be used to synthesize the findings across the studies and to investigate moderators. In the proposed review, parental imprisonment is defined as any kind of custodial confinement of a parent, apart from being held in police cells. For example, imprisonment can refer to confinement in jails or prisons (state or federal) in the United States, and open or closed prisons (local or training) in the United Kingdom. The three child outcomes that will be investigated are antisocial behavior, criminal behavior and mental health problems. In this review, antisocial behavior is a broad term referring to behavior that violates social norms and the rights of others but does not necessarily break the law. Criminal behavior refers to behavior that violates the penal code and could result in criminal conviction. Mental health problems refer to depression, anxiety, and general internalizing problems. Studies meeting all the following six criteria will be included in the review. (Note that additional criteria will be used to select studies for sub-analyses of particular review questions; see section 3.6.) Publication. Both published and unpublished studies will be included. Country of origin. Studies may be conducted in any country and may be reported in English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian. We are not aware of studies reported in other languages, and anticipate that colleagues will help interpret results reported in these languages for the review. Timeframe. Studies may be published between 1960 and 2008. Existing reviews suggest that most studies of children of prisoners were conducted since 1980. A few studies were conducted in the 1970's (e.g., Moerk, 1973, and Sack, Seidler & Thomas, 1976) and we are aware of only one study that was conducted in the 1960's (Friedman & Esselstyn, 1965). However, these early studies were nearly all exploratory in nature, and would not meet eligibility requirements for this review. Therefore, we will set 1960 as the lower limit for our searches. Initial Library. An initial set of 150 full reports about children of prisoners were retrieved for the Murray and Farrington (in press) review. These will be used as an initial library for the proposed systematic review. Electronic databases will be searched for the years 1960 to 2008. We will search the following electronic databases using the following keywords: Prison*/ Jail*/ Penitentiary/ Imprison*/ Incarcerat*/ Detention AND Child*/ Son*/ Daughter*/ Parent*/ Mother*/ Father* AND Antisocial*/ Delinquen*/ Crim*/ Offend*/ Violen*/ Aggressi*/ Mental health/ Mental Illness/ Internaliz*/ Depress*/ Anxiety/ Anxious We will search reference lists of review articles and primary studies. To identify other studies, we will contact international colleagues in England, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Large-scale longitudinal studies might include results relevant to this review but not refer to parental imprisonment in report titles or abstracts. We will contact directors of leading longitudinal studies in child development to inquire whether they have existing results on parental imprisonment that we have not found. Most studies compare children of prisoners and a control group either during parental imprisonment or shortly after it (e.g., Stanton, 1980; Trice & Brewster, 2004). Only a few studies have examined outcomes in adulthood (e.g., Huebner & Gustafson, 2007; Kandel et al., 1988; Murray & Farrington, 2005; Murray, Janson, & Farrington, 2007). Although a few randomized experiments have been conducted on the effects of imprisonment on prisoners (Killias & Villetaz, 2008), according to existing reviews, no study has used randomized assignment to investigate effects of parental imprisonment on children. Some studies compare children of prisoners with children of the same age selected from the general population (e.g., Bor, McGee, & Fagan, 2004; Huebner & Gustafson, 2007). These studies provide estimates of the zero-order risk associated with parental imprisonment for children. Other studies use matched control groups to try to test the causal effects of parental imprisonment on children. For example, Stanton (1980) compared children of imprisoned mothers and children of mothers on probation to control for background maternal criminality and social disadvantage (although the two groups were not equivalent on these dimensions). In several studies, statistical control techniques were used to try to disentangle the effects of parental imprisonment from background disadvantage (e.g., Bor et al., 2004; Huebner & Gustafson, 2007; Murray & Farrington, 2005; Murray et al., 2007). In the absence of randomized experiments, ideally studies should compare children of prisoners and controls on change in outcomes from before to after parental imprisonment, while balancing the two groups on critical covariates. We are aware of only two ongoing studies of this type, and hope to find more in our searches. Assuming that the studies we locate in our searches have similar designs to those described above, only very speculative conclusions about causal effects can be drawn from existing research. Some studies report multiple findings based on a single sample. For example, a study might report on more than one child outcome (e.g., both crime and mental health) or might use multiple measures for a single outcome (e.g., official convictions and self-reported criminal behavior). All findings will be coded and entered into the data file. Findings from the same study may sometimes be included in more than one meta-analysis. For example, from one study, findings on antisocial behavior, crime and mental health may be included in separate meta-analyses on these topics. However, because effect should be independent a only one will be included from in meta-analysis. one will be selected from study, using the following We will code the following topics at A is in studies will be coded by two in to and to criteria. We will study results in all the studies we have collected so reported outcomes as or The of effect to be used in analyses is the odds by comparing the of among children of prisoners and and the of the odds However, results will be to odds for of and are the will be and then into using the & are will be & and then will be into If are reported as as the will be from & can be from other this will be using the in and will in three as described set of analyses will be for the three child antisocial behavior, crime and mental The set of analyses will investigate whether parental imprisonment might be a causal risk factor for child We will this by effect that are for critical of the outcome are in Three of study will be included in these these studies, effect measures for will be using the described in and and from will be to using the & and then will be to The key to be is whether the for critical is to We are aware that aggregating effect based on studies that for is and we aim to the as a moderator (in separate that we identify enough studies. We will also investigate possible causal effects of parental imprisonment by studies that control for of child outcomes The in change from before to after parental imprisonment will be using the at and then will be into a It will be whether the for child outcome is to in the set of if the of effect is or effect are based on very few study or the is we will a effects we will a effects If there are many study findings that cannot be to the of we will the of findings reported in these studies parental imprisonment predicted adverse child outcomes after controlling for critical or All studies will be coded on and then entered into by (Lipsey & will be used to the The review will be on studies but will include information (e.g., on prison or social when this is in for findings or A of has been in searching and studies of parental imprisonment. 150 articles have been We still need to a more search for studies, code the studies, new and a report to Campbell We aim to the of the report to the Campbell six of the being We to the review three The will take for We anticipate help conducting the searches from and will help with results from studies reported in of and of may also the review research The only possible of is that we have conducted two studies of the effects of parental imprisonment on children, and we have argued in a review that parental imprisonment is associated with adverse outcomes for children (Murray & Farrington, in press). The two studies that we conducted had findings regarding the causal effects of parental imprisonment on one suggested parental imprisonment might have causal effects (Murray & Farrington, the other suggested parental imprisonment had no causal effects (Murray et al., 2007). Hence we are not by these results to either Also, of to in any from any that has any in the conclusions of the review. We are not aware of any or that might influence our imprisonment, child to and mothers imprisonment, child to to for at one after of to to behavior in school 17 to to to & official to to to to to to to to to to to (Note that to the may be before the This should be used in with the described in Murray, et Studies three quality on the for conclusions about risk and causal risk factors. increasing in study To draw conclusions about the of should be To draw conclusions about risk studies need to have high and high risk factor To draw conclusions about causal risk factors studies need to have high risk and causal risk factor on causal risk factor on study of change in outcome study With of change in outcome study of change in outcome study With of change in outcome With risk factor as To causal risk factor studies, need to code whether or not studies are and whether or not studies change in the from before to after risk We this Murray et al., for By studies we studies that use or statistical balancing techniques to for critical that might as between the risk factor and the are they need to be for the specific risk factor and outcome being studied our of critical for parental imprisonment and child outcomes in By change in we that studies should include a of the child and investigate whether there is change in outcome from before to after risk change or for should be when the causal effects of parental imprisonment on children. We to studies as if they estimate the effects of imprisonment controlling for at three risk factors in the The of parental imprisonment found in research a review, see Murray and Farrington, in press) and of child problem risk risk risk risk of research of publication of research Country of research of report the following inclusion criteria not to find from population Other parents were was the length of parental imprisonment measures of parental imprisonment were how were the children when parental imprisonment population was the control group drawn was it that the control group had not parental were used to and on of child outcome parental were used to other background between and the Murray et al., quality outcome outcome Mental health outcome type of antisocial outcome was type of crime outcome was type of mental health outcome was was the after the parent was imprisoned the while the parent was in prison or after was Criminal reference for the outcome was was used to the of child outcomes outcome Other information used to calculate effect at effect for the effect also for were & were the parental imprisonment parental imprisonment with parental imprisonment from for by & of child outcomes outcome Other information used to calculate effect for in analyses for in of Other effect

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.