Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA in Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Melissa Peckins

Second Advisor

Dana Chesney

Abstract

Paternal incarceration has been associated with behavioral and emotional problems in children and adolescents. However, less is known about whether the duration of paternal incarceration is related to these outcomes. The present study tested whether the duration of paternal incarceration between ages 3 and 9 predicted aggressive behavior and anxious and depressed behavior at age 15 and whether gender moderated these associations. Data were drawn from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study. The analytic sample included 535 adolescents whose fathers had been incarcerated at least once between the ages of 3 and 9 (n = 286 males). Paternal incarceration duration was measured by maternal report when the child was age 9 and adolescent aggressive and anxious and depressed behavior was measured by primary caregiver report at age 15. Pearson correlations and hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to test whether paternal incarceration duration in childhood predicted adolescent aggressive and anxious and depressed behavior, when controlling for sociodemographic characteristics of the family. Although paternal incarceration duration was negatively correlated with anxious and depressed behavior, this association was no longer significant when controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Paternal incarceration duration was not associated with aggressive behavior, and gender did not moderate either association. These findings suggest that the duration of paternal incarceration alone may not explain adolescent behavioral and emotional outcomes. Future studies should investigate how other factors, such as the timing of incarceration and the quality of the father-child relationship, impact adolescent outcomes.

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