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Parental Incarceration and Child Sleep and Eating Behaviors
Dylan B Jackson1, Michael G Vaughn2
1Department of Criminal Justice, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX.
Insights
Parental incarceration is linked to increased risky sleep and eating behaviors in children. Children with both parents incarcerated showed double the risk of multiple unhealthy behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Child development
- Public health
- Sociology
Background:
- Parental incarceration is a significant adverse childhood experience.
- Understanding its impact on child health behaviors is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between parental incarceration and sleep/eating behaviors in early childhood.
- To identify specific risky health behaviors linked to parental incarceration.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study.
- Examined maternal and paternal incarceration history as predictors.
- Employed logistic regression to analyze 7 health behaviors (sleep problems, sleep duration, snack, starch, sweets, soda, fast food consumption).
Main Results:
- Parental incarceration significantly increased the likelihood of risky sleep and eating behaviors.
- Children with both parents incarcerated had twice the probability of exhibiting multiple risky behaviors.
Conclusions:
- Parental incarceration has significant implications for children's sleep and eating habits.
- Scholars and practitioners should consider these negative repercussions for child health and well-being.
Objectives:
To examine whether parental incarceration is significantly associated with a number of sleep and eating behaviors among offspring during early childhood.
Study Design:
Data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, an at-risk sample of parents and their offspring, were employed to test this possibility. Both maternal and paternal incarceration history were examined as predictors of whether children manifested high levels of the following 7 health behaviors: sleep problems, short sleep duration, salty snack consumption, starch consumption, sweets consumption, soda consumption, and fast food consumption. Logistic regression techniques were used to carry out the analyses.
Results:
Both maternal and paternal incarceration significantly increased the odds of a number of risky sleep and eating behaviors during childhood. Ancillary analysis also revealed that the predicted probability of exhibiting multiple risky behaviors across the sleep and eating domains was twice as large among children whose parents had both been incarcerated, relative to children whose parents had not been incarcerated.
Conclusions:
Parental incarceration may have important implications for the sleep and eating behaviors of offspring. Both scholars and practitioners may, therefore, want to consider the possible negative repercussions of parental incarceration for the sleep and eating behaviors of children, and the potential for these high-risk health behaviors to compromise the health and well-being of children as they age.