Family Process Perspective on the Heterogeneous Effects of Maternal Incarceration on Child Wellbeing

• Published date: 01 February 2015
• Date: 01 February 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12117
• Author: Joyce A. Arditti

POLICY ESSAY

MATERNAL INCARCERATION AND

CHILD WELLBEING

Family Process Perspective on the

Heterogeneous Effects of Maternal

Incarceration on Child Wellbeing

The Trouble with Differences

Joyce A. Arditti

Virginia Tech

Although the preponderance of evidence suggests that parental incarceration has

lasting and detrimental effects on children (Arditti, 2012; Murray and Farrington,

2008a; Murray,Farrington, Sekol, and Olsen, 2009; Poehlmann and Eddy, 2010;

Wildeman and Wakefield, 2014), research has been advancing that seeks to understand

the conditions in which negative consequences are most likely. The issue of heterogene-

ity involves considering variation in children’s social and family environments, as well as

examining incongruities in child and family outcomes as they pertain to parental incar-

ceration. As pointed out by Turney and Wildeman (2015, this issue), these incongruities

among studies are more obvious with regard to maternal incarceration and child outcomes,

and they could stem from a methodological approach with qualitative studies suggesting a

wider and more nuanced range of possibilities for children experiencing incarceration than

quantitative studies. Given the epistemological assumptions that guide qualitative research,

it makes sense that new and unexpected possibilities could then emerge, including findings

suggesting that children might do well in conjunction with a parent’sincarceration. Sample

variation, measurement, and different statistical approaches contribute to heterogeneous

effects of maternal incarceration on children. In this policy essay, I discuss the applied im-

plications of the issue of heterogeneity as it pertains to maternal incarceration and comment

on a well-executed analysis examining the heterogeneous effects of maternal incarceration.

Turney and Wildeman used a well-known representative quantitative data set surveying

Direct correspondence to Joyce A. Arditti, Department of Human Development, Virginia Tech, 311 Wallace

Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24060 (e-mail: arditti@vt.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12117 C2015 American Society of Criminology 169

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 14 rIssue 1