The association between parental incarceration and children’s educational outcomes: a systematic review

Exposure to parental incarceration has been associated with adverse educational outcomes for children. We aimed to identify the educational outcomes associated with exposure to parental incarceration between conception and 18 years of age and explore the strength of that association. The protocol for this review was registered with PROSPERO (ID: CRD42023483182). On 4 October 2023 we searched six databases and conducted backward citation chaining of a previous systematic review. Our findings were synthesised by way of narrative synthesis. Sixteen studies, comprising 301,220 participants, met the inclusion criteria. Educational outcomes included decreased school readiness, reduced literacy and numeracy skills, lower grade point averages in high school, and a decreased likelihood of high school and college completion. The findings may be limited by our focus on English-language longitudinal study designs. The findings indicate that parental incarceration is associated with children’s educational outcomes and underscores the need to gather and utilise research evidence to develop policy platforms to address disadvantage where it is identified.