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The experience of parental incarceration can hurt children in many ways. To learn about its long-term impact, researchers examined data from a large, prospective, epidemiological study conducted in eight waves in rural North Carolina.
The researchers followed 1420 children (ages, 9–16 years) through age 30 (weighted percentages: females, 44%; white, 89%; black, 7%; Native American, 4%). By age 16, 24% (roughly equal numbers of boys and girls) reported having a parental figure who had been incarcerated in jails or prisons. Parental incarceration was reported by 21% of white participants, 43% of black participants, and 48% of Native Americans. Almost 11% at any follow-up reported parental incarceration.
In analyses adjusting for sex and race/et…