A new study is shedding light on how many Canadian children experience parental incarceration, providing, for the first time, a credible estimate for a group that has been “statistically invisible” in policy and service planning.
Available data in Canada doesn’t identify whether children have experienced parental incarceration – which is an adverse childhood experience – making it extremely hard to understand how many children need support or the types of services needed.
The study, published in PLOS One on April 8, identified nearly 170,000 children younger than 18 who experienced parental incarceration in Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan between 2015 and 2021. Researchers say that about 1.2 per cent of children in these provinces experienced parental incarceration per year, however, this number is likely an underestimation due to limitations on available data.
The study was led by researchers at McMaster University, alongside collaborators at universities and community organizations across the country.
“Parental incarceration is not only a criminal justice concern – it constitutes a fundamental violation of children’s rights, disrupting family bonds and fueling intergenerational trauma. Closing the evidence gap is urgently needed to measure and mitigate the harms of this critical adverse childhood experience,” says Christine Bentley-Wang, study co-author and assistant professor with McMaster University’s Department of Pediatrics.
Other key findings:
- Children often experience multiple episodes of parental incarceration. Researchers estimate 25 per cent experienced four or more episodes during the study period.
- Among affected children, 30.5 per cent had at least one Indigenous parent, while 5.9 per cent had at least one Black parent.
- Across time periods, for every 10 adults incarcerated, about seven children experienced parental incarceration.
- For every 10,000 people in these provinces, 229 children experienced incarceration. This rate is 29 per cent higher than the rate in the European Union, which is 178 children/10,000 people.
Previous research has highlighted how parental incarcerations may happen alongside other serious challenges in a family, including violence at home, a parent struggling with substance use, homelessness and poverty. Researchers noted children of incarcerated parents often experience poorer physical health, and higher mortality, academic difficulties and mental illness.
While further research is needed to fully quantify the prevalence and burden of this adverse childhood experience, these?minimum?estimates can be used to raise awareness of the issue of?parental incarceration in Canada. Evolving evidence, including this study, is instrumental to advancing work to measure, prevent, and mitigate the harms associated with parental incarceration for children and families.?
“This study is responsive to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child 2022 call for Canada to improve data collection to enable monitoring of child rights, particularly for children in vulnerable situations. The study begins to address the substantial gap in knowledge about children living with incarcerated parents in Canada, and highlights the importance of routine, detailed data collection to inform work to support children and families,” says Nancy Russell, a coordinator with the Canadian Coalition for Children with Incarcerated Parents.
Future research should focus on building more complete and up to date national datasets that include all provinces, territories, and federal prisons. The authors also emphasize the need for research that examines inequities experienced by Indigenous and Black children, including Indigenous-led, community-governed approaches.
The study was led by Fiona Kouyoumdjian, associate professor with McMaster’s Department of Family Medicine, and involved collaborators from the Simon Fraser University, Trent University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Calgary, the University of New Brunswick, the University of Regina, and the University of Toronto. The Canadian Coalition for Children with Incarcerated Parents and the Native Women’s Association of Canada were also key collaborators in the development of the study.
Funding for the study was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.