Parental Incarceration and Mental Health among Black Youth: Do Neighborhood and School Assets Mitigate Harms?

To examine associations between parental incarceration and mental health outcomes among Black youth, and whether neighborhood and school assets moderate this relationship. We hypothesized that parental incarceration would be associated with poorer mental health outcomes, but that this association would be significantly attenuated as neighborhood and school assets increased. Data come from the Survey of Police-Adolescent Contact Experiences (SPACE), a cross-sectional survey of a community-based sample of Black youth ages 12–21 in Baltimore City, Maryland (n = 345) collected from August 2022-July 2023. Multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic regressions, as well as product-term analysis, were employed to test our hypotheses. Findings indicate that, net of covariates, parental incarceration was associated with lower self-rated mental health (including poor/fair self-rated mental health) and higher depressive symptoms (including clinically significant depressive symptoms) among youth. Both neighborhood social capital and perceived school supports significantly buffered these associations. Neighborhood and school assets can help close the mental health gap between Black youth with and without exposure to parental incarceration. Findings underscore opportunities to support families through multi-sectoral advocacy efforts that increase the resources available to children exposed to parental incarceration.