DOI: 10.3886/icpsr31704.v1
title: Systematic Review of the Effects of Parental Imprisonment on Child Antisocial Behavior and Mental Health, 1960-2008
title: Version 1

description: The two main aims for the review were to assess evidence on whether parental imprisonment is a risk factor for undesirable child outcomes and to assess evidence on whether parental imprisonment is a causal risk factor. A third aim of the review was to investigate whether associations between parental imprisonment and child outcomes differ according to child, parent, and environmental characteristics. Between June and September 2008, researchers searched for studies that met the eligibility criteria. Several strategies were used to conduct an exhaustive search for eligible studies. Researchers started with an existing set of documents collected by Joseph Murray during his previous research on the effects of parental imprisonment on children and then used three methods to search for additional studies. First, researchers searched 23 electronic databases for the years 1960-2008. The same keywords were used to search each database. Second, researchers examined bibliographies of previous reviews of studies on the effects of parental imprisonment on children. Third, researchers contacted experts in the field. Two groups of researchers and practitioners were emailed and asked to inform researchers of any studies they thought might be eligible for the review. The 16 studies included in the review were coded for the following key features: reference information, sample characteristics, details about the measure of parental imprisonment, details of subsamples, and multiple comparisons made in the study, details of the comparison group(s) used to derive effect sizes, types of outcome measured, and measurement details, methods used to control for confounding variables to estimate causal effects, methodological quality of the study for drawing conclusions about risk factors and causal risk factors, and statistical information used to derive an effect size.
description: The two main aims for the review were to assess evidence on whether parental imprisonment is a risk factor for undesirable child outcomes and to assess evidence on whether parental imprisonment is a causal risk factor. A third aim of the review was to investigate whether associations between parental imprisonment and child outcomes differ according to child, parent, and environmental characteristics.
description: Between June and September 2008, researchers searched for studies that met the eligibility criteria. Several strategies were used to conduct an exhaustive search for eligible studies. Researchers started with an existing set of documents collected by Joseph Murray during his previous research on the effects of parental imprisonment on children and then used three methods to search for additional studies. First, researchers searched 23 electronic databases for the years 1960-2008. The same keywords were used to search each database. Second, researchers examined bibliographies of previous reviews of studies on the effects of parental imprisonment on children. Third, researchers contacted experts in the field. Two groups of researchers and practitioners were emailed and asked to inform researchers of any studies they thought might be eligible for the review. The first group consisted of about 65 researchers and practitioners who researchers knew had a professional interest in children of prisoners. The second group consisted of about 30 directors of major longitudinal studies in criminology. From all of these sources, 10,727 references were retrieved for further screening.
description: Studies included in the review were coded for the following key features: Reference information (title, authors, publication year, etc.); Sample characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, response rates, etc.); Details about the measure of parental imprisonment; Details of subsamples, and multiple comparisons made in the study; Details of the comparison group(s) used to derive effect sizes; Types of outcome measured and measurement details; Methods used to control for confounding variables to estimate causal effects; Methodological quality of the study for drawing conclusions about risk factors and causal risk factors; Statistical information used to derive an effect size; Bivariate effect sizes for the associations between parental imprisonment and children's antisocial behavior and mental health; Covariate adjusted effect sizes for the associations between parental imprisonment and children's antisocial behavior and mental health;
description: none
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Standardized missing values.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Presence of Common Scales: none
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Bivariate Effect Size Data 
 DS2: Covariate Adjusted Effect Size Data
description: record abstracts 
 These data were collected as part of a systematic review for the Campbell Crime and Justice Coordinating Group (CCJG). Further information about the Campbell Collaboration and the Campbell Crime and Justice Group can be found at the Campbell Collaboration Web site. 
This project was also funded by Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom; SFI Campbell, The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Denmark; and British Academy, United Kingdom.
description: All published and unpublished studies of children with imprisoned parents between 1960 and 2008. Smallest Geographic Unit: none
description: The first set of seven eligibility criteria used to identify studies for the reviewed included: The study must include children of prisoners and at least one group of children without imprisoned parents.; The study must include a measure of child antisocial behavior or mental health.; The child outcome must have been measured after parental imprisonment first occurred.; The study must use the same measure of child outcome for children of prisoners and the comparison group.; Numerical information: At least one effect size must be reported, or there must be enough numerical information to calculate at least one effect size.; Publication: Studies may be published or unpublished; Location and language: Studies may be conducted in any country and may be reported in English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian.; After initial screening of studies using the seven eligibility criteria above, researchers determined that additional criteria were required to exclude other studies that were not relevant to the review's objectives. The following three criteria were added: Studies were excluded if all children were recruited from courts or mental health clinics.; Studies were excluded if the only comparison group of children was separated from a parent (for reasons other than imprisonment), or were the best friends of children of prisoners.; One adoption study was excluded from the review because its design could only be used to estimate the genetic association between maternal imprisonment and child outcomes, not the environmental effects of parental imprisonment on children; After eliminating studies that did not meet all 10 eligibility criteria, 16 studies (reported in 25 documents) were identified as eligible for the review.