Skip to main content
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact

Search form

American Institutes for Research

  • Our Work
    • Education
    • Health
    • International
    • Workforce
    • ALL TOPICS >
  • Our Services
    • Research and Evaluation
    • Technical Assistance
  • Our Experts
  • News & Events

You are here

  • Home
3 Mar 2014
Report

Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Synthesis of Research and a September 2013 Listening Session

Roger Jarjoura, AIR
David L. DuBois, University of Illinois-Chicago
Rebecca J. Shlafer, University of Minnesota
Konrad A. Haight, AIR

About 1.7 million youth in the U.S. have at least one parent in prison. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of parents held in prisons has risen 79 percent from 1991-2007. Youth with incarcerated parents fare worse than other youth on a range of educational and physical and mental health outcomes. Having an incarcerated parent can increase the likelihood that a young person becomes involved in antisocial and delinquent behavior. Given the level of family disruption these young people experience, mentoring is a powerful and positive intervention that can provide caring, trusting adults to those whose parents are absent.

Released at the end of January, Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Synthesis of Research and a September 2013 Listening Session synthesizes research and the voices and opinions of mentoring experts, practitioners, parents and youth shared at a listening session. The report and listening session were sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the White House's Domestic Policy Council and Office of Public Engagement.

Recommendations for federal support for high quality mentoring programs and services for children of incarcerated parents emerged from this work and include the need for the following:

  • Structured, strategic supports such as timely and affordable background checks during the mentor screening process and assistance in engaging high-quality mentors from diverse backgrounds.
  • Cultivation of a community of practice to share resources and ideas among mentoring programs, including peer learning and program collaboration and leveraging OJJDP’s National Mentoring Resource Center.
  • Investments in research to generate a better understanding of the effectiveness of mentoring—such as an examination of youth outcomes as they relate to program characteristics and practices, quality of the mentoring relationship, and varied life circumstances and backgrounds.

“This report offers a unique opportunity to take stock of the state of knowledge on mentoring as a strategy to support children of incarcerated parents,” said Roger Jarjoura, Ph.D., principal researcher at AIR. “It provides clear guidance to federal agencies on facilitating high quality mentoring programs.”

The report was co-authored by Jarjoura and Konrad Haight. David DuBois, an Institute for Health research and policy fellow at the University of Illinois-Chicago and Rebecca Schlafer, assistant professor of pediatrics and adolescent health at the University of Minnesota, were also co-authors.

More about AIR’s work on mentoring

Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Synthesis of Research and a September 2013 Listening Session

Further Reading

  • Creating Opportunities for Young Men of Color
  • Long Story Short: How Can Mentoring Help Children of Incarcerated Parents?
  • Evaluation of OJJDP’s Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration Program
  • Resources: A Developmental Approach to Reconnecting System-Involved Youth
  • Effective Strategies for Mentoring African American Boys
Share

Contact

Image of Roger Jarjoura

Roger Jarjoura

Principal Researcher

Topic

Mental Health
Child Welfare
Mentoring

RESEARCH. EVALUATION. APPLICATION. IMPACT.

About Us

About AIR
Board of Directors
Leadership
Experts
Clients
Contracting with AIR
Contact Us

Our Work

Education
Health
International
Workforce

Client Services

Research and Evaluation
Technical Assistance

News & Events

Careers at AIR


Search form


 

Connecting

FacebookTwitterLinkedinYouTubeInstagram

American Institutes for Research

1400 Crystal Drive, 10th Floor
Arlington, VA 22202-3289
Call: (202) 403-5000
Fax: (202) 403-5000

Copyright © 2020 American Institutes for Research®.  All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap