Systematic Review of the Effects of Parental Imprisonment on Child Antisocial Behavior and Mental Health, 1960-2008 (ICPSR 31704)

Version Date: May 7, 2012

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Principal Investigator(s):
Joseph Murray, University of Cambridge; David P. Farrington, University of Cambridge; Ivana Sekol, University of Cambridge; Rikke F. Olsen, SFI-The Danish National Centre for Social Research

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR31704.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The two main aims for the review were to assess evidence on whether parental imprisonment is a risk factor for undesirable child outcomes and to assess evidence on whether parental imprisonment is a causal risk factor. A third aim of the review was to investigate whether associations between parental imprisonment and child outcomes differ according to child, parent, and environmental characteristics. Between June and September 2008, researchers searched for studies that met the eligibility criteria. Several strategies were used to conduct an exhaustive search for eligible studies. Researchers started with an existing set of documents collected by Joseph Murray during his previous research on the effects of parental imprisonment on children and then used three methods to search for additional studies. First, researchers searched 23 electronic databases for the years 1960-2008. The same keywords were used to search each database. Second, researchers examined bibliographies of previous reviews of studies on the effects of parental imprisonment on children. Third, researchers contacted experts in the field. Two groups of researchers and practitioners were emailed and asked to inform researchers of any studies they thought might be eligible for the review. The 16 studies included in the review were coded for the following key features: reference information, sample characteristics, details about the measure of parental imprisonment, details of subsamples, and multiple comparisons made in the study, details of the comparison group(s) used to derive effect sizes, types of outcome measured, and measurement details, methods used to control for confounding variables to estimate causal effects, methodological quality of the study for drawing conclusions about risk factors and causal risk factors, and statistical information used to derive an effect size.

Citation

Murray, Joseph, Farrington, David P., Sekol, Ivana, and Olsen, Rikke F. Systematic Review of the Effects of Parental Imprisonment on Child Antisocial Behavior and Mental Health, 1960-2008. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2012-05-07. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR31704.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2007-IJ-CX-0045)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

none

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1960 -- 2008

Date of Collection

2008-06 -- 2008-09

Data Collection Notes

  1. These data were collected as part of a systematic review for the Campbell Crime and Justice Coordinating Group (CCJG). Further information about the Campbell Collaboration and the Campbell Crime and Justice Group can be found at the Campbell Collaboration Web site.

  2. This project was also funded by Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom; SFI Campbell, The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Denmark; and British Academy, United Kingdom.

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Study Purpose

The two main aims for the review were to assess evidence on whether parental imprisonment is a risk factor for undesirable child outcomes and to assess evidence on whether parental imprisonment is a causal risk factor. A third aim of the review was to investigate whether associations between parental imprisonment and child outcomes differ according to child, parent, and environmental characteristics.

Study Design

Between June and September 2008, researchers searched for studies that met the eligibility criteria. Several strategies were used to conduct an exhaustive search for eligible studies. Researchers started with an existing set of documents collected by Joseph Murray during his previous research on the effects of parental imprisonment on children and then used three methods to search for additional studies. First, researchers searched 23 electronic databases for the years 1960-2008. The same keywords were used to search each database. Second, researchers examined bibliographies of previous reviews of studies on the effects of parental imprisonment on children. Third, researchers contacted experts in the field. Two groups of researchers and practitioners were emailed and asked to inform researchers of any studies they thought might be eligible for the review. The first group consisted of about 65 researchers and practitioners who researchers knew had a professional interest in children of prisoners. The second group consisted of about 30 directors of major longitudinal studies in criminology. From all of these sources, 10,727 references were retrieved for further screening.

Sample

The first set of seven eligibility criteria used to identify studies for the reviewed included:

  1. The study must include children of prisoners and at least one group of children without imprisoned parents.
  2. The study must include a measure of child antisocial behavior or mental health.
  3. The child outcome must have been measured after parental imprisonment first occurred.
  4. The study must use the same measure of child outcome for children of prisoners and the comparison group.
  5. Numerical information: At least one effect size must be reported, or there must be enough numerical information to calculate at least one effect size.
  6. Publication: Studies may be published or unpublished
  7. Location and language: Studies may be conducted in any country and may be reported in English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian.

After initial screening of studies using the seven eligibility criteria above, researchers determined that additional criteria were required to exclude other studies that were not relevant to the review's objectives. The following three criteria were added:

  1. Studies were excluded if all children were recruited from courts or mental health clinics.
  2. Studies were excluded if the only comparison group of children was separated from a parent (for reasons other than imprisonment), or were the best friends of children of prisoners.
  3. One adoption study was excluded from the review because its design could only be used to estimate the genetic association between maternal imprisonment and child outcomes, not the environmental effects of parental imprisonment on children

After eliminating studies that did not meet all 10 eligibility criteria, 16 studies (reported in 25 documents) were identified as eligible for the review.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

All published and unpublished studies of children with imprisoned parents between 1960 and 2008.

Unit(s) of Observation

study

Data Source

Researchers examined the bibliographies of the following prior reviews:

  • Dallaire, D.H. (2007). Children with incarcerated mothers: Developmental outcomes, special challenges and recommendations. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 28(1), 15-24.
  • Gabel, S. (2003). Behavioral problems in sons of incarcerated or otherwise absent fathers: The issue of separation. In O. Harris and R.R. Miller (Eds.), Impacts of Incarceration on the African American Family (pp. 105-119). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
  • Hagan, J., and Dinovitzer, R. (1999). Collateral consequences of imprisonment for children, communities and prisoners. In M. Tonry and J. Petersilia (Eds.), Crime and Justice: A Review of Research (Vol. 26, Prisons, pp.121-162). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
  • Johnston, D. (1995). Effects of parental incarceration. In K. Gabel and D. Johnston (Eds.), Children of Incarcerated Parents (pp.59-88). New York: Lexington Books.
  • Murray, J. (2005). The effects of imprisonment on families and children of prisoners. In A. Liebling and S. Maruna (Eds.), The Effects of Imprisonment (pp.442-492). Cullompton, England: Willan.
  • Murray, J., and Farrington, D.P. (2008). The effects of parental imprisonment on children. In M. Tonry (Ed.), Crime and Justice: A Review of Research (Vol. 37, pp.133-206). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
  • Myers, B.J., Smarsh, T.M., Amlund-Hangen, K., and Kennon, S. (1999). Children of incarcerated mothers. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 8(1), 11-25.
  • Nijnatten, C. (1998). Detention and Development; Perspectives of Children of Prisoners, Monchengladbach, Germany: Forum Verlag Godesberg.

The following 23 electronic databases were searched for the years 1960-2008 (numbers in parentheses show the number of non-duplicated hits retrieved from each database):

  • Bibliograph of Nordic Criminology (16)
  • Blackwell/Wiley (0)
  • C2-SPECTR (The Campbell Collaboration Social, Psychological, Educational and Criminological Trials Register) (3)
  • Cochrane (13)
  • Criminal Justice Abstracts (1,689)
  • Dissertation Abstracts (728)
  • Education-Line (2)
  • Embase (409)
  • ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) (357)
  • Google (26)
  • Google Schlar (9,140, of which the first 1,000 could be examined)
  • Ingenta (217)
  • JSTOR (779)
  • Medline (408)
  • National Institute of Corrections Information Centre (73)
  • National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) (1,079)
  • Newton: University of Cambridge Library (99)
  • PsychInfo (1,517)
  • Science Direct (658)
  • System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (17)
  • Sociological Abstracts (571)
  • Springer (0)
  • Web of Science (1,003)

The following keywords were used to search the electronic databases: prison* OR jail* OR penitentiary OR imprison* OR incarcerat* OR detention AND child* OR son* OR daughter* OR parent* OR mother* OR father* AND antisocial* OR delinquen* OR crim* OR offend* OR violen* OR aggressi* OR mental health OR mental illness OR internailz* OR depress* OR anxiety OR anxious OR psychological*

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

Studies included in the review were coded for the following key features:

  • Reference information (title, authors, publication year, etc.)
  • Sample characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, response rates, etc.)
  • Details about the measure of parental imprisonment
  • Details of subsamples, and multiple comparisons made in the study
  • Details of the comparison group(s) used to derive effect sizes
  • Types of outcome measured and measurement details
  • Methods used to control for confounding variables to estimate causal effects
  • Methodological quality of the study for drawing conclusions about risk factors and causal risk factors
  • Statistical information used to derive an effect size
  • Bivariate effect sizes for the associations between parental imprisonment and children's antisocial behavior and mental health
  • Covariate adjusted effect sizes for the associations between parental imprisonment and children's antisocial behavior and mental health

Response Rates

Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales

none

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Original Release Date

2012-05-07

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Murray, Joseph, David P. Farrington, Ivana Sekol, and Rikke F. Olsen. Systematic Review of the Effects of Parental Imprisonment on Child Antisocial Behavior and Mental Health, 1960-2008. ICPSR31704-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2012-05-07. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR31704.v1

2012-05-07 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Standardized missing values.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

none

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.