Excess mortality in U.S. prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. prisons were especially susceptible to COVID-19 infection and death; however, data limitations have precluded a national accounting of prison mortality (including but not limited to COVID-19 mortality) during the pandemic. Our analysis of mortality data collected from public records requests (supplemented with publicly available data) from 48 Departments of Corrections provides the most comprehensive understanding to date of in-custody mortality during 2020. We find that total mortality increased by 77% in 2020 relative to 2019, corresponding to 3.4 times the mortality increase in the general population, and that mortality in prisons increased across all age groups (49 and under, 50 to 64, and 65 and older). COVID-19 was the primary driver for increases in mortality due to natural causes; some states also experienced substantial increases due to unnatural causes. These findings provide critical information about the pandemic's toll on some of the country's most vulnerable individuals while underscoring the need for data transparency and standardized reporting in carceral settings.

Stigma Arising from Youth Police Contact: The Protective Role of Mother-Youth Closeness.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between mother-youth closeness and stigma stemming from police contact. Background: Research increasingly indicates that stigma stemming from police-youth encounters links police contact to compromised outcomes among youth, though less is known about the correlates of stigma stemming from this criminal legal contact. Close mother-youth relationships, commonly understood to be protective for youth outcomes, may be one factor that buffers against stop-related stigma, especially the anticipation of stigma. Method: We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a sample of youth born in urban areas around the turn of the 21st century, to examine the relationship between mother-youth closeness and stop-related stigma. Results: We find that mother-youth closeness is negatively associated with stop-related anticipated stigma but not stop-related experienced stigma. We also find that the relationship between mother-youth closeness and stop-related anticipated stigma is concentrated among youth experiencing a non-intrusive stop. Conclusion: Close mother-youth relationships may protect against stigma stemming from criminal legal contact.

The Relationship between Youth Police Stops and Depression among Fathers.

Research shows youth police contact-a stressor experienced by more than one-quarter of urban-born youth by age 15-has deleterious mental health consequences for both youth and their mothers. Less is known about how youth's fathers respond to this police contact, despite differences in how men and women respond to stress and relate to their children. I use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to investigate the association between youth police stops and depression among youth's fathers. Results show that fathers of youth stopped by the police, compared to fathers of youth not stopped by the police, are more likely to report depression, net of father and youth characteristics associated with selection into experiencing youth police stops. This association is concentrated among non-Black fathers and fathers of girls. The findings highlight how the repercussions of youth criminal legal contact extend to youth's fathers and, more broadly, suggest that future research incorporate the responses of men connected to those enduring criminal legal contact.

Romantic Unions and Mental Health: The Role of Relationship Churning.

The stress process perspective suggests that romantic relationship transitions can be stressors that impair mental health. Research on romantic relationships and mental health has ignored one common stressor, on-again/off-again relationships, or churning. Using five waves of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,176), we examine associations between relationship churning and mothers' mental health. We find that mothers experiencing relationship churning have worse mental health than mothers in stably together relationships, net of characteristics associated with selection into relationship instability; these associations persist over four years. Mothers experiencing relationship churning have similar mental health as their counterparts who experience union dissolution (with or without repartnering). Current relationship status and quality explain some of the differences between churning and stably together mothers. Findings emphasize attending to multiple types of family stressors-even stressors and instability in ongoing relationships-and the micro-level ecological factors that shape mental health.

Parental Incarceration and Parent-Youth Closeness.

Objective: The goal of this study is to examine the association between parental incarceration and parent-youth closeness. Background: Despite the established complex repercussions of incarceration for relationships between adults, and the well-known intergenerational consequences of parental incarceration, little is known about how incarceration structures these intergenerational relationships. Method: In this paper, I use data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,408), a cohort of children followed over a 15-year period, to examine how parental incarceration is associated with relationships between youth and their (incarcerated and non-incarcerated) parents. Results: Results suggest three conclusions. First, parental incarceration is negatively associated with closeness between youth and their incarcerated parents. Second, the timing of first parental incarceration is important. Parental incarceration in early or middle childhood is negatively associated with closeness between youth and their incarcerated parent, and parental incarceration in adolescence is positively associated with closeness between youth and their non-incarcerated parent. Third, relationships between parents themselves explain some of the association between paternal incarceration in early childhood and father-youth closeness. Conclusion: Taken together, these findings advance our understanding of both the relational and intergenerational consequences of criminal legal contact and our understanding of the correlates of parent-youth relationships and, in doing, so, highlights how family ecological contexts contribute to inequality.

Mothers' Parenting in an Era of Proactive Policing.

A family systems perspective suggests the repercussions of adolescent police contact likely extend beyond the adolescent to proliferate to the broader family unit, but little research investigates these relationships. I used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal survey of children who became adolescents during an era of proactive policing, to examine the relationship between adolescent police contact and four aspects of family life: mothers' parenting stress, mothers' monitoring, mothers' discipline, and the mother-adolescent relationship. Adolescent police contact, especially invasive police contact, is associated with increased parenting stress, increased discipline, and decreased engagement, net of adolescent and family characteristics that increase the risk of police contact. There is also suggestive evidence that adolescent police contact is more consequential for family life when mothers themselves experienced recent police contact. These findings suggest the repercussions of police contact extend beyond the individual and proliferate to restructure family relationships.

Maternal depression and adolescent optimism.

The life course perspective posits that parents' and children's lives are linked through shared experiences and interdependent contexts such as the household. In this paper, we draw on the life course perspective to examine the relationship between maternal depression and adolescent optimism, an important trait that reflects adolescents' positive expectations for the future, and how features of the family context explain this association. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3013), taking advantage of the study's longitudinal measures of maternal depression that span a 15-year period. First, we find that current maternal depression is negatively associated with optimism among adolescents. Second, we find that the family environment and parent-child relationships, but not economic wellbeing, explain the association between maternal depression and adolescent optimism. These findings inform our understanding of how parent and adolescent wellbeing are linked and, importantly, how the family environment conditions how adolescents envision their futures.

Police Stops and the Erosion of Positive Future Orientation Among Urban Adolescents.

PURPOSE: The objective is to examine the ramifications of adolescent personal and vicarious police stops for positive future orientation, among all adolescents and by race/ethnicity and sex subgroups, and to assess how features of police stops-including frequency, intrusiveness, resultant stigma, and resultant traumatic stress response-are associated with positive future orientation. METHODS: We used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,437), a national sample of at-risk urban-born youth, and a series of ordinary least squares regression models that account for observed nonrandom selection into police stops to examine the relationship between adolescent police stops and positive future orientation. RESULTS: Three key findings emerged. First, personal and vicarious police stops, compared to no police stops, are negatively associated with positive future orientation among adolescents. Second, associations are largest among Black and Hispanic girls. Third, any exposure to police stops, regardless of features of the stops (including frequency, intrusiveness, resultant stigma, and resultant traumatic stress response), is negatively associated with positive future orientation. DISCUSSION: Given that positive future orientation is linked to mental and physical health throughout the life course, the findings suggest both personal and vicarious police stops among adolescents may increase health inequality in the United States.

Disclosure among Youth Stopped by the Police: Repercussions for Mental Health.

Police contact is a common and consequential experience disproportionately endured by youth of color living in heavily surveilled neighborhoods. Disclosing police contact to others (including parents, siblings, or friends) may buffer against the harmful mental health repercussions of police contact, but little is known about the relationship between disclosure of police contact and mental health. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a cohort of urban children born around the turn of the 21st century and followed through age 15, to examine the relationship between disclosure of police contact and mental health among youth. Results suggest three conclusions. First, youth who experience police contact (regardless of whether they disclose this contact) report more depressive symptoms and anxiety than youth who do not experience police contact. Second, among youth who experience police contact, disclosure is associated with significantly less anxiety (but is not significantly associated with depressive symptoms). Third, this protective nature of disclosure is concentrated among Black youth and boys. Taken together, these findings suggest that disclosing police contact, particularly for groups most likely to experience it, may ameliorate some of the harmful mental health repercussions of this contact for youth.

In Science Journals.

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Mothers' health following youth police stops.

Research documents that criminal justice contact, such as incarceration, impairs health among family members of those experiencing the contact. Yet little is known about the health consequences of vicarious exposure to another common type of criminal justice contact, police stops. In the present study, we examined the association between youth police stops and mothers' health. We used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a cohort of urban children born around the turn of the 21st century and followed through adolescence (2014 to 2017), to estimate the association between youth police stops and mothers' health (measured by overall health and health limitations). We estimated these associations with propensity score matching, a counterfactual approach that accounts for observed selection into youth police stops. Analyses reveal that youth police stops had deleterious repercussions for mothers' health, net of their health prior to the stop. These health consequences emerged regardless of the frequency or intrusiveness of the stop. The negative association between youth police stops and overall health was larger among mothers of girls than among mothers of boys. Associations were similar across mothers' race/ethnicity and education. Taken together, results show that youth police stops exacerbate health problems among mothers. Given the concentration of police stops among youth of color, these findings highlight the consequences of the criminal justice system for population health inequalities.

Sleep Problems among Mothers of Youth Stopped by the Police.

Police stops are the most common form of criminal justice exposure in the USA, and are particularly common among urban youth, with 23% of them reporting a stop by the age of 15. While recent work has begun to illuminate the health impacts of police stops for these youth, little is known about the health consequences of youth police contact for the mothers of youth stopped by the police. The current study employs data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a sample of urban, at-risk youth and their families. Multivariate logistic regression models are conducted to examine the link between youth police stops and sleep difficulties among mothers. Additional analyses examine whether the features and consequences of police stops are associated with sleep difficulties among mothers. The findings indicate that mothers with youth who have experienced police stops are more than twice as likely to report both depression- and anxiety-related sleep difficulties compared to their counterparts. Furthermore, stops with certain features-including those characterized by intrusiveness, high trauma, and high stigma-emerged as consistently significant predictors of maternal sleep difficulties. The findings suggest that mothers who are vicariously exposed to police contact via their children are a vulnerable group. Given the non-random distribution of police contact across the population of youth, with police contact concentrated among children of color, the findings suggest that police contact may exacerbate racial inequalities in sleep, which may itself contribute to racial disparities in broader mental and physical health outcomes.

Relationship Churning and Desistance From Intimate Abuse.

It is essential to understand how desistance from intimate abuse occurs so it can be facilitated for those experiencing it. Recognizing the category of churning relationships-in which partners separate and reunite-gives us analytic leverage in identifying the relationship dynamics that predict abuse desistance. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal survey of parents in urban areas, we compare desistance among churners (who experience a breakup only) with those who repartner (who experience a breakup and a new partnership) and those who are stably together (who experience neither a breakup nor a new partnership). We examine whether abuse desistance patterns are distinct for those who breakup and reconcile versus those who breakup and form new partnerships-that is, we can separate out the association between abuse desistance and the breakup versus the new partnership. We find that, among those with a history of intimate abuse, churners and those who later repartner are overrepresented. However, among those who do experience abuse, the repartnered are most likely to experience desistance from intimate abuse, controlling for individual sociodemographic characteristics. In breaking up and entering a new relationship, the repartnered may be most successful in developing a healthier relationship dynamic than the churners who reunite with one another.

The long reach of parental incarceration: The case of institutional engagement.

Vast surveillance, especially of those with criminal justice contact, is a key feature of contemporary societies. As a consequence of this surveillance, formerly incarcerated individuals both avoid and are excluded from institutions, and this dampened institutional engagement may extend to offspring of the incarcerated. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine the relationship between parental incarceration and young adult institutional engagement in different settings, including financial institutions, medical institutions, school and work, volunteer organizations, and religious institutions. We find parental incarceration is associated with diminished institutional engagement in young adulthood. This association is partially explained by reduced parental institutional engagement during adolescence in addition to young adult's impaired health, lack of trust in government, and criminal justice contact. Our findings highlight a subtle and pervasive way that parental incarceration influences the transition to adulthood.

Household member substance problems and children's health in the United States.

A sizable number of children are exposed to household member substance problems, an adverse childhood experience (ACE), yet little research uses a nationally representative sample of U.S. children to examine this association. We used newly released data from the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), a nationally representative sample of noninstitutionalized children in the United States, and logistic regression models to investigate the relationship between household member substance problems and 14 indicators of children's health. We find 9.0% of children in the United States have experienced household member substance problems. We also find children exposed to household member substance problems are more likely to have health problems than children not exposed to household member substance problems, but that most of these descriptive differences can be explained by household characteristics and other ACEs. Children exposed to household member substance problems are a vulnerable population. Given that household member substance problems are concentrated among socioeconomically disadvantaged children, children at a greater risk of health problems than their counterparts, this ACE may exacerbate existing socioeconomic inequalities in children's health.

Paternal Incarceration and Early Sexual Onset among Adolescents.

Despite a growing literature documenting deleterious intergenerational consequences of incarceration, relatively little is known about how exposure to paternal incarceration is associated with risk behaviors in adolescence. In this article, we use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,405)-a cohort of urban children born around the turn of the 21st century and followed for 15 years-to examine the relationship between paternal incarceration and one indicator of adolescent risk behavior, early sexual onset. Results from adjusted logistic regression models show that paternal incarceration is associated with a greater likelihood of initiating sexual activity before age 15, in part resulting from externalizing problems that follow paternal incarceration. We also find that these associations are concentrated among boys living with their fathers prior to his incarceration. Given that paternal incarceration is a stressor concentrated among already vulnerable children, paternal incarceration may exacerbate inequalities in adolescent sexual risk behavior.

Parental Incarceration and Child Health in the United States.

Mass incarceration has profoundly restructured the life courses of not only marginalized adult men for whom this event is now so prevalent but also their families. We examined research published from 2000 to 2017 on the consequences of parental incarceration for child health in the United States. In addition to focusing on specific health outcomes, we also considered broader indicators of child well-being because there has been little research on the association between parental incarceration and objectively measured child health outcomes. Our findings support 4 conclusions. First, paternal incarceration is negatively associated-possibly causally so-with a range of child health and well-being indicators. Second, although some research has suggested a negative association between maternal incarceration and child health, the evidence on this front is mixed. Third, although the evidence for average effects of paternal incarceration on child health and well-being is strong, research has also suggested that some key factors moderate the association between paternal incarceration and child health and well-being. Finally, because of the unequal concentration of parental incarceration and the negative consequences this event has for children, mass incarceration has increased both intracountry inequality in child health in the United States and intercountry inequality in child health between the United States and other developed democracies. In light of these important findings, investment in data infrastructure-with emphasis on data sets that include reliable measures of parental incarceration and child health and data sets that facilitate causal inferences-is needed to understand the child health effects of parental incarceration.

Health Limitations among Mothers and Fathers: Implications for Parenting.

Despite good reasons to expect that poor health could impede parenting, relatively little research considers this possibility. This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (N=3,376) and propensity score matching to examine the relationship between maternal and paternal health limitations-health conditions that limit the amount or type of work one can do-and mother- and father-reported parenting stress, cooperation in parenting, and engagement with children. First, we find that mothers' and fathers' health limitations are associated with greater parenting stress. Second, we find evidence of spillover associations; compared to their counterparts, parents with health limitations report that their child's other parent exhibit less cooperation. Third, we find that the associations between health and parenting are not moderated by parents' co-residential status. Taken together, these findings inform the stress process perspective and its implications for family life.

Parenting in On/Off Relationships: The Link Between Relationship Churning and Father Involvement.

Family systems theory points to the interconnected nature of dyadic relationships within the family unit, arguing for attention to how the parental relationship shapes their ties to and interactions with their children. Grounded in family systems theory, we consider how relationship churning-defined as being in an on-again/off-again relationship with the same partner-is associated with father involvement. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine how father involvement among relationship churners compares with father involvement among those in three other relationship types (measured during the first five years of the focal child's life): stably together relationships, stably broken-up relationships, and repartnered relationships. First, we find that churning fathers remain more involved with their 9-year-old children than do parents who stably break up or repartner, but they are less involved than those who are stably together. Second, lower relationship quality among churners-and, to a lesser extent, repartnering and childbearing with a new partner-explains some of the differences in father involvement between churners and the stably together. Third, these differences are most apparent among parents not living together when father involvement is measured. Taken together, the focus on relationship churning extends prior research on the association between relationship transitions and father involvement by separating relationship instability from partner change.