Intersecting Systems, Compounding Harms: Child Behavior Checklist Findings Among Children with an Incarcerated Parent and Foster Care Experience

Background and Purpose:
Children with incarcerated parents are at elevated risk for emotional, behavioral, and academic difficulties, yet little is known about children who also have foster care experience. This gap obscures how overlapping system involvement may deepen instability and compound harm for children navigating separation across child welfare, corrections, and schools. This study examined whether children with an incarcerated parent who also had current or prior foster care experience demonstrated higher emotional and behavioral problems than children with an incarcerated parent who remained in the care of a biological parent and had no foster care experience. It also assessed whether school behavior and performance indicators were associated with elevated child problem behaviors.

Methods:
This study used a cross-sectional secondary quantitative analysis of baseline data from the Parent Child Study, a randomized controlled trial involving incarcerated parents in Oregon. The analytic sample included 202 children with an incarcerated parent: 101 with current or prior foster care experience and 101 matched comparison children in the care of a biological parent with no foster care history. Measures included parent-reported child and parent demographics, school behavior and performance indicators, parent-reported barriers to contact, and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) internalizing, externalizing, and total problems scores. Bivariate t-tests examined differences in CBCL outcomes by foster care status and school indicators; chi-square tests assessed differences in contact barriers by foster care status; and ordinary least squares regression models examined correlates of internalizing and total problems. Multiple imputation was used to address missing CBCL data.

Results:
Children with foster care experience had significantly higher internalizing, externalizing, and total problems scores than children without foster care experience. Mean internalizing scores were 4.91 versus 3.76, externalizing scores were 8.51 versus 6.48, and total problems scores were 23.81 versus 18.73. School behavior indicators also emerged as strong markers of distress. Children who had ever been suspended had significantly higher externalizing and total problems scores, and children reported to be in trouble with their teacher had significantly higher internalizing, externalizing, and total problems scores. In multivariable models, trouble with teacher remained a significant predictor of higher total problems, while foster care status did not remain significant after adjustment, suggesting that school-based behavioral concerns may be especially salient indicators of need. Parents of children with foster care experience were also significantly more likely to identify loss of parental rights as a barrier to contact.

Conclusions and Implications:
Findings suggest that children experiencing both parental incarceration and foster care face layered risks that are visible not only in emotional and behavioral functioning, but also in school-based indicators that may offer an early opportunity for intervention. The results highlight the need for stronger coordination across child welfare, corrections, and schools, along with clearer supports around parental rights, family contact, and continuity of care. For social work research, practice, and policy, these findings underscore the importance of institutional responses that move beyond single-system approaches and instead address the cumulative effects of family separation across systems.