New Study Shines a Light on the Impacts of Parental Incarceration on Children

A new study published in Pediatrics found that young adults who had a parent incarcerated during their childhood are more likely to skip needed health care, smoke cigarettes, engage in risky sexual behaviors, and abuse alcohol, prescription and illicit drugs. These findings have a potentially broad impact, as over five million U.S. children have had a parent in jail or prison.

“The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world. With the climbing number of parents, especially mothers, who are incarcerated, our study calls attention to the invisible victims — their children,” says lead author Nia Heard-Garris, MD, MSc, a pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Instructor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.