Paternal incarceration and child-reported behavioral functioning at age 9

• Examines the impact of paternal incarceration on child behavior at age 9.
• Explores effects for both pro- and antisocial behaviors.
• Employs novel child self-reports and compares to oft-used parent reports.
• Finds paternal incarceration harms behavioral development into middle childhood.
• Incarceration increases antisocial behaviors but has null effects on prosocial skills.

Within the last few decades our understanding of the importance of non-cognitive skills for socioeconomic success has grown along with our knowledge of the deleterious impacts of paternal incarceration for child wellbeing. Given the importance of early skills and that elementary-aged children constitute the majority of children with incarcerated parents, understanding the connection between paternal incarceration and the socio-emotional component of children’s non-cognitive development is pressing. Using matching models, data from the newest wave of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and exploring a larger range of behavioral skills than previous literature, this paper provides estimates of the impact of paternal incarceration on children’s behavioral functioning at age 9 using children’s own self-reports. Comparisons to oft-used parent reports are made and heterogeneity by gender is explored. Findings suggest the incarceration of a father increases the antisocial behaviors children self-report, but has null effects on prosocial skill development.