2017/08/18 by Carrie Pettus-Davis, Carrie Pettus‐Davis, Elaine Eggleston Doherty +3
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Homelessness and Social Issues
paper · doi:10.1177/0093854817721936
openalex publication_date 2017/08/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
More than 2.5 million emerging adults (ages 18-25) are incarcerated annually and most do poorly after release. Social support after an individual’s release from incarceration is a critical protective factor against recidivism for emerging adults. However, little is known about the stability of support for emerging adults post incarceration. This study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine whether social support declines over time after incarceration and how change in support may vary by incarceration length. Our findings show that, while a nonincarcerated group of justice-involved emerging adults experience relatively stable social support, there are negative and volatile effects of social support among their incarcerated counterparts. Moreover, longer incarceration stays are related to greater deterioration of support over time after community reentry for emerging adults. Study findings advance the field of postincarceration intervention development by responding to the challenge of determining the appropriate targets and length of interventions designed for emerging adults.