Author ORCID Identifier

Cynthia Najdowski: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3624-9188

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-28-2020

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X20951068

Abstract

This research sought to identify a potential process by which intergenerational crime occurs, focusing on the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ subsequent arrests. We drew from Matsueda’s work on reflected appraisals as an explanatory mechanism for this effect. Thus, the present research examined whether caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for adolescents’ future incarceration sequentially mediated the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual arrest outcomes. Propensity score matching was used to examine this effect in a sample of 1,735 15- to 16-year-olds using NLSY97 data. Parental incarceration was positively related to caregivers’ expectations of adolescents’ future arrest. Moreover, caregivers’ expectations were strongly associated with adolescents’ expectations. Finally, the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual future arrest likelihood was partially mediated by caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for this outcome. This study revealed support for the proposition that the experience of parental incarceration may influence adolescents’ negative outcomes through reflected appraisals.

Comments

Publisher Acknowledgement:

This is the Author’s Original Manuscript. The version of the record appears here: Noel, M.,† & Najdowski, C. J. (Advanced online publication). Caregivers’ expectations, reflected appraisals, and arrests among adolescents who experienced parental incarceration. Youth & Society. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X20951068

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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