Gabel S
Children's Day Hospital, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Westchester Division, White Plains 10605.
Fam Process. 1992 Sep;31(3):303-14. doi: 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1992.00303.x.
The decade of the 1980s witnessed more than a doubling in the number of incarcerated individuals. Little is known about the psychological reactions of children whose parents are incarcerated, although a variety of behavioral disorders apparently related to separation, stigma, and deception of the child has been reported. The possibility of aggressive or antisocial behavior emerging in sons of incarcerated fathers has been mentioned as of particular concern in some reports. This article discusses salient themes in the literature on the reactions of children to parental incarceration, with an emphasis on boys' reactions to incarceration of their fathers. It critiques this literature and compares the findings with literature on the effects of separation in father absence related to other causes (for example, divorce, death, military service). Behavioral or emotional disorder associated with paternal incarceration probably is related mainly to associated factors such as the meaning of the incarceration to the child, the remaining caretaker's psychological characteristics and psychopathology, the parenting relationship between the caretaker and the child, and the coping capacities and resources of the family, rather than to the separation itself. Recommendations for further research in this increasingly important field are provided.
20世纪80年代，被监禁的人数增加了一倍多。对于父母被监禁的孩子的心理反应，人们知之甚少，尽管有报告称，孩子出现了各种明显与分离、耻辱感和欺骗有关的行为障碍。在一些报告中，有人特别提到，被监禁父亲的儿子出现攻击性行为或反社会行为的可能性令人担忧。本文讨论了关于孩子对父母监禁反应的文献中的突出主题，重点是男孩对父亲被监禁的反应。本文对这些文献进行了批判，并将研究结果与关于因其他原因（如离婚、死亡、服兵役）导致父亲缺席的分离影响的文献进行了比较。与父亲被监禁相关的行为或情绪障碍可能主要与相关因素有关，如监禁对孩子的意义、其余照顾者的心理特征和精神病理学、照顾者与孩子之间的养育关系，以及家庭的应对能力和资源，而不是与分离本身有关。本文还提供了在这个日益重要的领域进一步研究的建议。
