"Parental incarceration is associated with both elevated levels of mental illness and greater incidence of chronic delinquency among youth affected. Neighborhood-level disorder likely plays a role in the association between parental incarceration and mental illness. However, its precise role has not yet been established. Some empirical evidence indicates that neighborhood disorder compounds the psychological distress of parental incarceration, as youth living in disorderly neighborhoods are more likely to be affected by poverty and victimization. Other theorists suggest that neighborhood disorder mitigates the psychological distress of parental incarceration, because the associated stigma may be diminished within communities wherein crime is comparatively commonplace. Drawing upon a secondary dataset of 1,216 first-time male juvenile delinquents, the present study empirically tests these hypotheses by examining the moderating role of neighborhood disorder in the predictive relationship between parental incarceration and mental health. Results indicate that both youth of color and youth living in high levels of neighborhood disorder experience no incremental increase in mental illness when a parent is incarcerated. However, parental incarceration is significantly detrimental to the mental health of White youth in non-disordered neighborhoods. These findings speak to the strong levels of resilience within youth in communities affected by patterns of mass incarceration. Results have implications towards better understanding the complex and contextually-dependent relationship between risk factors in the area of juvenile justice."--Page ii.
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