Childhood Adversity, Social Connection, and Mental Health In a National Sample of Adults Serving Juvenile Life without Parole

Background and Purpose: Individuals sentenced to life without parole for homicide offenses committed as children (JLWOP) have reported high rates of trauma preceding incarceration. Prior research has found that exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is associated with challenges to both mental health and interpersonal relationships. Research also suggests that people sentenced to JLWOP demonstrate strong coping and capacity for resilience and transformation, despite early adversity and harsh carceral experiences. To date, most of this research is qualitative and focused on the post-release period, rather than the carceral period. Moreover, few studies quantitatively measured types of trauma experiences, social supports, or mental health using standardized tools among this population. This paper surveyed incarcerated adults who were sentenced to JLWOP as children to explore rates of exposure to ACEs and examine the associations between ACEs, social support, social connection, and mental health.

Methods: We conducted a national survey of incarcerated adults in 20 states who were sentenced to JLWOP prior to 2012. In collaboration with states’ departments of corrections, paper surveys were administered through USPS mail. The response rate was approximately 50%, with a resultant sample of 430 incarcerated adults who were predominantly male (95%). The survey included standardized measures for adverse childhood experiences, perceptions of current social support and various aspects of mental health and wellbeing. We estimated ordinary least squares regression models examining associations between ACEs, social support, social connection, and wellbeing (e.g., flourishing, loneliness), adjusting for key demographics (e.g., age, sex, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, relationship status) and other childhood factors (e.g., foster care, pre-JLWOP detention, family involvement with child protective services).

Results: Respondents were 29-73 years old (M=43.5), with an average of 25.5 years served in prison, and all reported some exposure to adverse childhood experiences (M=7.49). They commonly reported diagnoses of anxiety (~45%), depression (50%), and PTSD (~34%), moderate rates of loneliness (M=2.94, SD=1.05) and relatively high rates of social support, social connection, and flourishing (M=5.50; SD=1.04). Cumulative ACEs were associated with loneliness (b=0.07, SE=0.02; p<0.01), whereas only individual types of ACEs were associated with flourishing. Social support (b=-0.48, SE=0.05; p<0.01) and social connection (b=-0.33, SE=0.05; p<0.01) were associated with lower rates of loneliness. Social support (b=0.40, SE=0.05; p<0.01) and social connection (b=0.43, SE=0.05; p<0.01) were also associated with higher rates of flourishing.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings indicate rates of exposure to adverse childhood experiences among people sentenced to JLWOP are even higher than previous literature suggests and demonstrate the importance of various types of social supports in promoting mental health and wellbeing among a life-sentenced population. Findings reinforce the need for trauma-informed policy and practice, and a focus on the quality of social connection in correctional and reentry programming.