Does Timing of First Incarceration Matter? The Effect of Age at First Incarceration on Midlife Health

Yujin Kim, University of Texas at Austin

Mass imprisonment has affected inmate and ex-inmate’s family, employment, and health life, and it is worthy to look at how the timing of incarceration might affect differently on ex-inmate’s life, especially their midlife health. Experiencing incarceration during transition to adulthood might mean the different life trajectory of ex-inmates comparing to those with experiencing incarceration in adulthood. I investigated how the timing of first incarceration affects people’s midlife health using NLSY79. Early incarceration and later incarceration lower the log odds of respondents to say that they are in good and excellent health comparing never incarcerated people at age 40. However, when current marital status and marital history are added in the model besides demographic, family background, and health behavior, later incarceration effect does not statistically significant, but early incarceration effect is still significant. It looks like the mechanism of effect of incarceration on midlife health differs by timing of first incarceration.