What is associated with increased stress for children with incarcerated parents?

It is important to examine what processes make ACEs, like a parent’s incarceration, stressful for children

Stressors that may exist before or are exacerbated by parental incarceration:

• Poverty & its challenges like food insecurity
• Housing instability or homelessness
• Shifts in caregivers
• Exposure to violence
• Other early adversity (racism, parental substance use or mental health problems)

Stressors associated with parental justice system involvement:

• Witnessing parental arrest
• Stigma, secrecy around the parent’s incarceration
• Visiting in some corrections settings
• Parental forced absence
• Repeated parental contact with the justice system

Witnessing parental arrest

• About 20-40% of children with incarcerated parents have witnessed their parent’s arrest
• When law enforcement protections for children are not in place, witnessing the parent’s arrest can be traumatic and remembered for many years, even into adulthood
• Watch this video to learn more about how witnessing a parent’s arrest is often traumatic and what can be done to protect children