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Sample ego-centered network (Ego #45)
Source publication
Objectives
The advent of mass incarceration has reinvigorated calls for a deeper understanding of how the “quality of relationships” is shaped by imprisonment (Travis J, Western B, Redburn S (eds), The growth of incarceration in the United States: exploring causes and consequences, National Academies Press, Washington DC, 2014). We address this iss...
Citations
... 80, No. 2 due to the harsh prison environment, social isolation, and potential exposure to violence (Porter, 2019;Travis et al., 2014). Additionally, incarceration often leads to secondary stressors upon reentry into society due to formal and informal barriers to social institutions and the stigma of having been incarcerated, which carries consequences for employment and financial well-being (Ewert et al., 2014;Pager, 2008), social relationships (Rengifo & DeWitt, 2019), educational attainment (Ewert et al., 2014), and health (Massoglia & Remster, 2019). Taken together, these primary and secondary stressors can dysregulate biological systems and undermine and diminish the social conditions critical for healthy aging, thereby contributing to accelerated aging and cognitive decline (Berg et al., 2021;Testa et al., 2023). ...
Objectives
This study examines the association between prior incarceration and cognition trajectories among older adults in the United States.
Methods
Data are from Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of older adults in the United States. The analysis included respondents aged 55 and older who participated in the 2012-2020 HRS surveys and had valid responses on Langa-Weir cognition scores, incarceration history, and covariates (n = 5,663). Cognition trajectories were estimated using group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM), and multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between prior incarceration and cognition trajectory group membership.
Results
The study identified four distinct cognition trajectories. Formerly incarcerated individuals were significantly more likely to be in cognition trajectory groups defined by lower cognition scores and steeper declines in cognitive functioning over time. However, these associations were attenuated after accounting for sociodemographic and health-related characteristics, and all associations were rendered statistically non-significant after accounting for educational attainment.
Discussion
These findings highlight poorer cognition among older formerly incarcerated individuals compared to their never incarcerated counterparts, as well as underscore the role of educational attainment in this relationship. Future research and data collection efforts are needed to understand further the nexus between incarceration and cognitive functioning and the mechanisms underpinning this association.
... Second, incarceration is a stressor that can proliferate across people and generations, and thus not only harms the well-being of the person directly exposed to incarceration but also negatively impacts the well-being of adult family A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t members (Turney, 2021), children (Wildeman et al., 2018), and communities (Kajeepeta et al., 2020). Finally, the primary stressor of incarceration can lead to secondary stressors such as economic hardship (Harper et al., 2021;Maroto, 2015), fractured family relationships and social ties (Rengifo & DeWitt, 2019;Turney & Halpern-Meekin, 2021;Turney & Schneider, 2016), stigma (Feingold, 2021), and loss of social status (Schnittker & Bacak, 2013). Emerging research proposes that the stress-related harms of incarceration can contribute to a weathering process that inhibits healthy aging and exacerbates cognitive decline (Testa et al., 2023). ...
Objective
This study aimed to investigate the cognitive functioning of formerly incarcerated older adults compared to their never-incarcerated counterparts, focusing on immediate and delayed verbal recall.
Methods
Data are from 2,003 respondents who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health – Parent Study (AHPS) (ages 47-82; mean age 62). AHPS participants were administered word recall memory exercises to the parent respondent from the Rey Auditory-Verbal administered Learning Test, including (a) 90-second (immediate or short-term verbal memory), (b) 60-second recall tests (delayed or long-term verbal memory), and (c) combined word recall on the 90- and 60-second tests
Results
Adjusting for control variables, respondents who reported prior incarceration had a lower rate of verbal recall on the combined word recall (Incidence risk ratio [IRR] = .915, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = .840, .997) and immediate word recall (IRR = .902, 95% CI = .817, .996). When restricting the sample to respondents over age 60, prior incarceration was associated with lower combined word recall (IRR = .847, 95% CI = .752, .954), immediate word recall (IRR = .857, 95% CI = .762, .963), and delayed word recall (IRR = .834, 95% CI = .713, .974).
Discussion
This study underscores the adverse impact of prior incarceration on cognitive functioning in the older adult population, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions and support for formerly incarcerated older adults. The results reinforce the importance of addressing the long-term consequences of incarceration, especially as individuals enter older adulthood.
... In the landscape of familial adversities, the incarceration of a family member emerges as a particularly pernicious stressor, one that potentially triggers a process of stress proliferation-whereby the initial hardship leads to subsequent stressors, magnifying the overall stress process (Aneshensel, 1992;Pearlin, 2010;Pearlin et al., 2005;Turney, 2014). Indeed, research has demonstrated that that incarceration of a family member is not just an isolated stressor but a pivotal event that can disrupt social networks and support systems, increasing the risk of isolation and loneliness among family members, and can act as a catalyst for secondary stressors such as stigmatization and strained social ties, which collectively exacerbate feelings of loneliness (Rengifo & DeWitt, 2019;Turney, 2015;Volker et al., 2016) The prevailing issue of loneliness in the United States is reaching epidemic proportions (Office of the Surgeon General, 2023). Studies reveal that about half of the United States adult population report experiencing feelings of loneliness (Bruce et al., 2019;Cigna Corporation, 2021;Shovestul et al., 2020). ...
... From the latest Survey of Prison Inmates in 2016, an estimated 107,400 veterans were incarcerated in state or federal prisons, constituting 8% of all state prisoners and 5% of all federal prisoners (Maruschak et al., 2021). Despite evidence among general population samples that personal incarceration can sever ties and diminish friendship and familial networks among formerly incarcerated persons (Rengifo & DeWitt, 2019;Volker et al., 2016), prior research has not examined how a history of family member incarceration influences the feelings of loneliness among U.S. military veterans which can inform broader efforts to promote the well-being of this population. ...
... These findings expand upon prior research documenting that personal experiences with incarceration are harmful to social networks among general population samples (Rengifo & DeWitt, 2019;Volker et al., 2016) and provide the first evidence to our knowledge that family member incarceration is associated with greater feelings of loneliness among low-income U.S. military veterans. Critically, loneliness in veteran populations is a pervasive issue that represents a significant public health concern with broad implications for health disparities. ...
Exposure to incarceration can have significant ramifications for one’s social relationships. However, the study of how the incarceration of a family member influences loneliness, including among specific segments of the population that experience elevated levels of loneliness, such as U.S. military veterans, has gone understudied. This study aimed to examine the relationship between family member incarceration and perceptions of loneliness among a sample of low-income U.S. military veterans. Data are from the National Veteran Homeless and Other Poverty Experiences Study—a national survey of low-income U.S. veterans collected in December 2022 and January 2023. Multiple Poisson is used to assess the relationship between family member incarceration and a loneliness index, and multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship with specific constructs in the loneliness index. The results indicate that respondents who ever experienced the incarceration of a family member reported significantly more loneliness (incidence risk ratio = 1.189, 95% CI [1.035, 1.366]). Further, analyses of the specific items in the loneliness index revealed that family member incarceration was related to an increased risk of reporting feelings of often lacking companionship (relative risk ratio = 1.598, 95% CI [1.077, 2.370]) and often feeling isolated from others (1.711, 95% CI [1.014, 2.886]). Given the potential adverse consequences of loneliness and family member incarceration for well-being, the results from this study emphasize the need for increased attention and coordinated approaches in addressing feelings of loneliness, developing efforts to mitigate the harms of family member incarceration within the U.S. veteran community.
... D'ailleurs, les mineurs judiciarisés estiment que leurs relations positives demeurent contextuelles au milieu de garde, sans jamais primer sur leurs liens significatifs externes (Mignon, 2019). Cela fait écho à la superficialité des liens entre détenus adultes (Rengifo et DeWitt, 2019). ...
Carlo Morselli s’intéressait depuis plusieurs années aux avenues possibles pour appliquer l’analyse de réseaux aux objectifs des différents milieux de pratique. La littérature souligne le potentiel d’une telle approche et l’importance chez les détenus d’entretenir des liens positifs pour compenser l’absence de leurs
proches. Cette recherche explore les réseaux de confiance de jeunes contrevenants hébergés au Centre de réadaptation Cité-des-Prairies à Montréal afin d’en examiner l’utilité dans le quotidien des unités. L’argumentaire caractérise la confiance de deux unités à travers le temps. Trois éléments apparaissent particulièrement d’intérêt pour favoriser la compréhension du
milieu : le biais qu’entraîne la présence d’acteurs englobants sur la densité de confiance ; la limitation des erreurs de perception des liens de confiance grâce à la stabilité du réseau ; et le lien apparemment positif entre confiance et climat de groupe. Les résultats ouvrent une discussion qui encourage ce type
de milieu à intégrer une approche sociométrique, en montrant comment le réseau de confiance pourrait servir les interventions quotidiennes vers l’atteinte des objectifs du milieu.
... In addition, physical or mental health challenges can increase food insecurity by undermining an individual's ability to properly manage resources, budget for food, and access available affordable food services (Huang et al., 2010;Maynard et al., 2018). Finally, incarceration can also diminish social support and social capital (Rengifo and DeWitt, 2019), which can be critical for providing instrumental and emotional support that can help minimize the risk of food hardship (Garasky et al., 2006;Jackson et al., 2019;Testa and Fahmy, 2021). ...
Purpose
Research has revealed an association between incarceration and food hardship at the individual level. Other studies also find that county jail incarceration rates are associated with worse population health. The aim of this study is to cross-fertilize these literatures by examining the relationship between jail incarceration and food hardship rates across United States counties.
Methods
We analyzed data on jail incarceration rates from the Vera Institute of Justice and food budget shortfalls from Feeding America from 2010 to 2018 (N x T = 25,289) using fixed-effects regression models that account for unmeasured time-stable county characteristics and observed time-varying covariates.
Results
Findings show that county jail populations are positively associated with greater food budget shortfalls over time. In substantive terms, results suggest that a county with a jail incarceration rate of 1200 per 100,000 population (the 95th percentile) has a predicted food budget shortfall of 60.86 for a county with a jail rate of 4.25—the lowest rate in our sample.
Conclusion
By linking jail incarceration and food hardship rates this study further demonstrates the consequences of mass incarceration for population health and highlights the macro-level association between incarceration and food hardship.
... Having a family member incarcerated is also a major stressor on families [24], a process so stressful it has been described as "doing time together" [21]. Post-release stressors continue to accumulate as a formerly incarcerated individual must re-establish ties with friends, family, the labor force, and civic society, all while facing a host of formal and informal barriers [25][26][27][28][29]. Furthermore, when the person experiencing incarceration is a parent, the stress may proliferate intergenerationally, such that the stressors experienced by a parent can have cascading consequences that negatively impact the well-being and development of children and adolescents [15,30]. ...
Background: Research points to parental incarceration as an important social determinant of child health. Even so, studies examining the health impact of parental incarceration in the context of diverse childhood stressors and adversities are lacking. Methods: The present study uses a large, nationally representative sample to compare U.S. children who were exposed to parental incarceration to a strategic comparison group of U.S. children who were not exposed to parental incarceration, but were nonetheless exposed to alternative family stressors and adversities. Results: The initial findings generally reveal worse health among children exposed to parental incarceration compared to those who are not exposed. Even so, these differences were partially or completely attenuated when comparing the incarceration-exposed group to more comparable groups of children exposed to a varying degree of alternative stressors/adversities. Conclusions: Programmatic efforts targeting parental incarceration as a means of promoting child health may be enhanced by adequately addressing co-occurring family stressors and child adversities.
... The occurrence of stressful life events, such as having any contact with the criminal justice system, including arrests and conviction, but particularly incarceration, can be especially challenging (Fernandes, 2019) when a woman lacks social support that can be drawn upon to buffer against unexpected vicissitudes (Dean & Sharkey, 2011;Martin, Rogers, Cook, & Joseph, 2004). To be sure, incarceration diminishes social support networks (Rengifo & DeWitt, 2019), thereby potentially eliminating critical avenues for pregnant incarceration-exposed women to avoid food insecurity. ...
This study examines the relationship between exposure to incarceration and maternal food insecurity during pregnancy, and the moderating role of social support in this process. Using data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), logistic regression models were used to assess the association between incarceration of a woman or her partner in the year before birth and the likelihood of experiencing food insecurity. Moderation analyses were conducted by interacting levels of social support and incarceration exposure. Results indicate that exposure to incarceration either personally or vicariously through a partner increased the odds of food insecurity, while women with higher levels of social support were at lower risk for food insecurity. Moreover, study findings demonstrate a negative interaction between social support and incarceration, indicating that social support buffers against the harmful effects of incarceration for maternal food insecurity during pregnancy. Implications of the findings for theory and public policy are discussed
... Moreover, I aim to advance knowledge of the prevalence and outcomes of suspension in rural schools. I also join others in shifting the focus dominating prior labeling research from diminished institutional attachment and secondary deviance to the micro-level processes of interpersonal exclusion implied in labeling theories (Cochran et al., 2018;Mowen, 2017;Rengifo & DeWitt, 2019). Additionally, I show one way these network processes may be observed over time (also Schaefer et al., 2011), which is a particularly important contribution in the context of suspension because of the limited availability of individual-level school discipline information combined with longitudinal network data. ...
School suspension is a common form of punishment in the United States that is disproportionately concentrated among racial minority and disadvantaged youth. In labeling theories, the implication is that such stigmatized sanctions may lead to interpersonal exclusion from normative others and to greater involvement with antisocial peers. I test this implication in the context of rural schools by 1) examining the association between suspension and discontinuity in same‐grade friendship ties, focusing on three mechanisms implied in labeling theories: rejection, withdrawal, and physical separation; 2) testing the association between suspension and increased involvement with antisocial peers; and (3) assessing whether these associations are stronger in smaller schools. Consistent with labeling theories, I find suspension associated with greater discontinuity in friendship ties, based on changes in the respondents’ friendship preferences and self‐reports of their peers. My findings are also consistent with changes in perceptual measures of exclusion. Additionally, I find suspension associated with greater involvement with substance‐using peers. Some but not all of these associations are stronger in smaller rural schools. Given the disproportionate distribution of suspension, my findings indicate that an excessive reliance on this exclusionary form of punishment may foster inequality among these youth.
... Extended family networks. Offenders often provide networks of supportive extended family and friends (i.e., social capital) that are attenuated during periods of incarceration Granja 2016;Rengifo and DeWitt 2019). Relationship turmoil or divorce brought on by incarceration reduces the social capital of wives, partners, and children due to 'knifing off' from the incarcerated partner's contacts, including extended relatives, friends, and larger neighboring networks Granja 2016;Maruna and Roy 2007;Rengifo and DeWitt 2019). ...
... Offenders often provide networks of supportive extended family and friends (i.e., social capital) that are attenuated during periods of incarceration Granja 2016;Rengifo and DeWitt 2019). Relationship turmoil or divorce brought on by incarceration reduces the social capital of wives, partners, and children due to 'knifing off' from the incarcerated partner's contacts, including extended relatives, friends, and larger neighboring networks Granja 2016;Maruna and Roy 2007;Rengifo and DeWitt 2019). ...
... Others withdrawal from extended networks after these relationships become strained (Christian, Martinez, and Martinez 2015;Comfort 2008;Granja 2016;Turney, Schnittker, and Wildeman 2012). Initially, the incarceration of a loved one may result in the strengthening or even creation of bonds among family members and extended family in the community as they band together to determine what should be done, make travel arrangements to visit the prison, and discuss how to care for children (Rengifo and DeWitt 2019). As these relationships evolve, however, and as stress surmounts, they often result in strains and resentments within extended family networks due to the burdens that they impose (Comfort 2008;Granja 2016;Turney, Schnittker, and Wildeman 2012), typically on already strained networks with limited resources and frequent requests for assistance (Christian, Martinez, and Martinez 2015;Miller-Cribbs and Farber 2008). ...
Previous work has theorized that the removal of residents due to incarceration, known as coercive mobility, contributes to disruptions in neighboring relationships and therefore, impedes the community’s ability to engage in informal social control and prevent crime. However, research to date has yet to examine how women residents, who largely make up the population of residents who ‘remain behind,’ are affected by the incarceration of concentrated segments of male residents, who make up the majority of the prison population. Synthesizing prior research on coercive mobility, social capital, and the collateral consequences of incarceration, the present theoretical contribution incorporates effects to women’s forms of capital, including women’s social (i.e., resources inherent in neighboring relationships), physical (e.g., income), and human capital (e.g., education), as a mechanism to explain how concentrated incarceration contributes to deleterious consequences to informal social control. The author recommends that scholars examine the potentially gendered consequences of incarceration in future research.
Face aux défis qu’impose la vie en milieu carcéral, le développement de relations entre détenus est parfois perçu comme une stratégie d’adaptation afin de pallier les difficultés du quotidien. Dans ce contexte, nous proposons d’explorer l’intérêt des liens de confiance entre détenus, une avenue qui a pour le moment été peu explorée en raison de leur rareté dans ce contexte et des règles institutionnelles qui découragent leur développement. Le réseau de confiance de 59 individus avec leurs codétenus a été examiné à l’aide de mesures sociométriques. Les participants étaient répartis dans 14 secteurs de 2 établissements carcéraux provinciaux situés à Montréal (Québec), réservés à une population adulte masculine. Après avoir caractérisé la rareté des réseaux étudiés et la place que prennent les biais relationnels, des tests quantitatifs déterminent si la confiance est reliée aux conflits, aux problèmes relationnels et aux perceptions du climat de groupe tels qu’évalués par les participants. Les résultats indiquent que les relations de confiance n’entrainent pas davantage d’implication dans des conflits ou d’autres problèmes relationnels. En revanche, la confiance est liée au climat de groupe ressenti, car elle améliore notamment les sentiments de cohésion et de sécurité. Les implications pour la compréhension de la vie en détention sont discutées.
