Parental Incarceration and Social Status Attainment of Hispanic Young Adults

Igor Ryabov , University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

The fact that parental incarceration has become a common event in the life course of many children is troubling. Using structural equation modeling, the present study investigates how immigrant generational status, family socio-economic background interact with parental incarceration to influence status attainment for Hispanic young adults. Three indicators of status attainment in young adulthood are used as outcome variables - educational attainment, wage and job quality. Results indicate that parental incarceration has a strong and negative influence on all three indicators of attained status. Likewise, family socio-economic background is strongly predictive of Hispanic young adults’ status attainment. The effect of immigrant generational status, however, varies depending on the outcome variable. Most importantly, we found that parental incarceration mediates influence of immigrant generational status and family socio-economic background on status attainment of Hispanic young adults.

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 Presented in Session 88. Adverse Experiences Among Children and Youth in Immigrant Families