The invisibility of fathers in the home setting has a significant influence on the behavior of children and the accessibility of resources needed to ensure a successful life for the children. However, the effects of paternal absence depend on the reason of the father and the welfare of the people in the society. The rate and increased cases of jailing parents especially those from the African communities in the United States has created a situation where a majority of children from such families to express different behaviors that expose children to unacceptable behavior. Similarly, the high rate of incarceration of parents is associated with some diseases that face the affected children thus drawing the attention of various researchers to understand the causes and effects of imprisonment of fathers and their children. The effects of incarcerated parents have different impacts on children depending on social welfare and the kind of parent convicted. This paper compares the results from various research articles thus comparing their findings regarding the relationship between incarcerated fathers and their children.
Different researchers have used various mechanisms to access the effects of incarcerated fathers and their relationship with children. The results indicate that incarcerated fathers have a significant impact on children those in circumstances where the mother is jailed. Emory & Rutgers, (2018) researched in an attempt to understand the effects that incarcerating parents have on the entire family. In the first section, the authors focus on analyzing the results of the existing literature about the topic thus identifying a gap that is associated with negative impacts associated with increased cases of jailing fathers. The researchers agree with the fact that increasing the rate of incarceration among the fathers has caused significant changes in the behavior for the children. However, there is little understanding of the mechanisms underlying the changes in the behaviors among the children. In their research, they focused on understanding the reasons behind the transformation of behavior among such children. They conducted a fragile and wellbeing study composed of participants from unmarried and married parents. They focused on collecting samples from minority and economically disadvantaged families. The results indicated that incarcerated fathers from disadvantaged families exposed the family to economic problems. The effects were found to be severe on sons than on daughters thus indicating a strong relationship between fathers and their sons.
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Hedge, (2018) also recognized the high rate on incarcerating parents particularly on fathers and the effects that they caused on their families. The author recognized the significant impact of incarcerated parents and their effect on the behavior of children such as the risk for social, emotional, and change of behavior. The underlying feature of the research is that children experience several problems especially in situations where their parents are incarcerated especially in circumstances where their fathers are jailed. The research focused on collecting information from a large group of people such as caregivers, children, and parents. In the case of parents, they used questionnaires to examine the perception of parents on the effects that children experienced as a result of losing their parents through incarceration. The questions exposed to parents differentiated the perception of mothers from that of the fathers thus identifying the relationship between the father incarceration and their children. The results indicated that the social, economic, emotional, and behavioral changes occurred among children in situations where the father was incarcerated than in circumstances where mothers were incarcerated. Activities such as increasing access to caregivers would reduce the adverse effects associated with a decline in the impact of such adverse effects associated with increased jailing of parents.
McBride & Pleck, (2012) engaged in research that intended to identify the effect of exposing parents especially fathers to the prison. In the first section of the paper, the authors used an alternative approach that is different from the other articles. In the first section, the researchers focused on understanding the results from the existing research to identify the effects of incarcerated fathers. The current literature supports the idea that the withdrawal of fathers from the family exposed the children to the adverse impacts. The identification of the effects of incarcerating fathers indicated that removal of fathers from the family resulted in social, economic, emotional changes of behavior associated with children. In an attempt of explaining the reasons associated with the adverse effects of incarceration, it is evident that the community resulted in the application of family process theory to understand the roles played by fathers in the family. Given the nature of the family, it is evident fathers from the family resulted in a failure of the absence of one functional unit of the family thus creating problems in the society. The results indicate that the restriction of the family contacted has been the reason behind the increased change in the behavior of children in the family.
Butler & Flynn, (2018) also developed an interest in understanding the relationship between father incarceration and the parents. The basis argument guiding the research originates from the increasing concern of the increased parents imprisoned across the globe and the impacts they have in the society. The basic case is that the majority of the people in jails are parents, and the majority of such parents are fathers. As a result, the absence of a good father in the family is felt when there are imposed restrictions for the family to access their caregiver. The study focused on understanding the relationship between fathers and children from different countries the study focused on examining the reasons behind increased imprisonment of good and active fathers by exploring the status of the reason for imprisoning the father. As a result, the research was based on the hypothesis that in circumstances where a criminal father was imprisoned there increased a higher chance for the children getting involved in anti-social behavior. The results reflect of the other researchers that identify adverse effects associated increased incarceration of fathers and the adverse effects associated with increased concern of adverse actions that faces the affected families.
From the analysis of the articles, it evident that they differ in the methodology and target populations for understanding the effects of imprisoning parents. Some of the researchers focused on understanding the impact of following the adverse effects associated with a decline in the presence of both parents in the home setting. For example, despite the evidence that researchers used different target population and applied different mechanisms to study the same problem, they all reached similar results about the study phenomenon. Withdrawing one of the parents from the family destroys the functioning of the family structure where children, father, and mother have different roles to play in the family. The results from the research articles indicate that many of the people in prisons were parents and their children were exposed to antisocial behavior as well as the development of mental problems in the community. This information indicates that father plays an essential role in the family and in circumstances where the father was jailed there existed challenges in meeting the needs of the family thus resulting in the increased vulnerability of changing their lives to serve their interest.
The results from the researchers recognize the idea that the family is comprised of different parties with each member playing a significant role in helping the family to achieve its objectives. For instance, the community expects fathers to be the sole providers of the family (Butler & Flynn, 2018). The family needs access to materials such as education, food, shelter, and clothing thus making the family an influential family in the society. Material possession is an essential aspect for the continuation of a family, and many of the families rely on fathers as the sole providers for their needs. For example, a complete definition of family should include both parents and children, and each member should play an active in ensuring the continuation of the family. The effects of gender roles that have been in existence for some time have revealed that the father is expected to perform all the duties related to creating material access. As a result, incarcerating fathers increases the vulnerability of children to engage in antisocial behavior such as theft and drug abuse in an attempt to cope with the new life.
According to Emory & Rutgers, (2018) indicates that the effects of father incarceration differed depending on various aspects such as the relationship between the parents and the children. The results were severe in the circumstances parents depicted a firm companion before the incarceration of the father. String relationship described the importance of the father to the society. Also, the increased concern for parents to act as caregivers and the protection from attack. In addition to the provision of material possession, the results indicated that fathers played roles such as providing security to the family and the feeling of love that existed in the family. In circumstances where the father was imprisoned, the family experienced fear of attack and this fear exposed children and their mother to several problems such as lack of housing and attack from enemies. The differences occur in circumstances where both parents are working; imprisonment of the father resulted in reduced effects on the family at large.
Despite the existence recognition of the material and security, the results indicated that the effects were severe among the sons than in daughters. Given the social background of the process family theory, fathers play an essential in guiding the behavior of their sons while mothers played an indispensable role in determining the actions of their daughters. The gender role model plays a critical role in explaining the reason as to why father incarceration increases the reasons behind the increased effects of imprisoning fathers to the sons. In the society, fathers provide both financial support and disciplinary actions to the children thus increasing thus making them essential people in the community. Incarcerating fathers means that the sons do not have access to role models and people they could share their problems and challenges. Even in circumstances where the mother was left free, they could not provide the expected role model to the sons. In some occasions, boychild would be open to the mother about the challenges and mechanism that could be applied in addressing such issues. A role model is an essential aspect that guides people in achieving the development of children to become a better and reliable member of the community.
The results from both articles indicate that the rate of imprisonment for parents shows some form of racism in the community. Majority of the affected families by father imprisonment were the African Americans as well as people from poor backgrounds. These arguments strengthen the importance of material possession and the relationship with increased crime in society. Racism reflects the level of injustice in the court system especially in situations where the majority of the people African Americans. The idea is that poverty and access to materials are negatively related and they contribute to the existence of increased crime level among the vulnerable groups. The rate of incarceration that existed among the parents was positively related to the price at which parents had access to resources needed to serve the interests of the children. Based on this information, Butler & Flynn, (2018) adds that the ecological environment in which the youths are brought up also determines the kind of life that children usually show in circumstances where their fathers had been incarcerated. In situations where the parents were imprisoned more than three times, the effects were severe on children as they had limited access in accessing the advice and interaction with their environment. In most cases, the children for incarcerated parents were likely to show antisocial behavior showing the effectiveness of the environment where they grew and their mechanisms for getting the needed resources to support their lives.
Despite the change in behavior and involvement in antisocial behaviors as a result of imprisoning fathers, the results from both researchers indicated a positive relationship between increased incarceration of parents and the development of mental illness (McBride & Pleck, 2012). They both agree that the effects and development of such diseases depended on the relationship between parents and children. In circumstances where there existed a healthy relationship, the impact of incarcerating a potential and caring father created health problems such as depression, anxiety, and heart-related diseases. Companionship and increased interaction among family members raise the level of happiness and feeling of togetherness in the society. However, imprisonment of the parent creates some boundaries in the rate of interaction thus causing a challenge in sharing the kind of information that they ought to share. Reduction of happiness and the inability of children to access their father and enjoy the happy moments they enjoyed with him lead to the creation of adverse effects associated with mental problems. Though the problem appears to be severe to the children, it is also experienced by mothers. The results depend on the gender of the parent and child, but the absence of fathers affects children from both genders of the children.
Despite the adverse relationship associated with increased imprisonment of fathers in the community, the authors of the articles have similarities regarding some of the factors that can reduce the adverse effects associated with incarceration of fathers (Hedge, 2018). For example, creating policies that promote justice and fairness reduces the impact related to racial discrimination in court. However, other activities such as access to caregivers and materials to continue supporting the family determines the extent to which the family is affected by the incarceration of the father. Based on the analysis of the articles, majority of the people effects of imprisonment of parents such as a change in social behavior and development of emotional and mental problems arises due to the challenge in acquiring the resources needed to support the family. By creating access to such resources, it would be a beneficial approach in reducing the effects related to the adverse relationship between imprisoned fathers and their children.
Incarcerating fathers contributes to antisocial behavior associated with their children due to the various duties that fathers play in the family. Understanding of the family structure through the family process theory determines the effect that a family is likely to experience when their father is imprisoned. The society obliges the father the role of providing the family with materials such as access to education, housing, clothes, and food. In circumstances where the father is imprisoned, it is undeniable that children will have to engage in alternative behaviors in an attempt to search for alternative approaches to acquiring such materials. Parents are role models, and both the mother and father play an essential role in understanding the behavior of their children. Imprisoning fathers exposes sons to behavioral challenges thus increasing their vulnerability to anti-social behaviors. Racism is witnessed in the rate of imprisoned parents, and there is a connection between poverty and the jailing of parents. The effects depend on several factors such as access to materials needed in the family as well as the presence of caregivers in the family.
References
Catherine Flynn & Michelle Butler (2018) Imprisoned Fathers—Responding to Children, Child Care in Practice, 24:2, 111-114, DOI: 10.1080/13575279.2017.1420338
Dwyer Emory, A. (2018). Explaining the consequences of paternal incarceration for children's behavioral problems. Family relations , 67 (2), 302-319.
Hedge, J. M. (2016). Children of incarcerated parents: The relation of contact and visitation to the parent-child relationship and internalizing and externalizing problems.
Pleck J., & McBride B. (2012).Imprisoned Fathers and Their Family Relationships: A 40-Year Review From a Multi-Theory View. Jpurnal of Family & Review. 20(3). 20-47
