NCJ Number
248096
Editor(s)
Julie Poehlmann,
J. Mark Eddy
Date Published
2013
Length
184 pages
Annotation
This report presents findings from five new studies that focus on child-level and/or family-level resilience processes in children with parents currently or recently incarcerated in jail or prison.
Abstract
The first study, which involved 210 children of elementary-school age with incarcerated parents, determined that regular interaction with persons who provide empathic attitudes and responses in interaction with the children is a protective factor against the children's aggressive behaviors with peers. The second study also focused on socially aggressive interactions with peers (teasing and bullying) for 61 children of incarcerated mothers. The learning of emotion regulation wass examined as a possible protective factor. The third study contrasted the resilience of children placed with maternal grandmothers compared with those placed with other caregivers. These are the children of 138 mothers incarcerated in a medium-security State prison. The relationship between a history of positive attachment between the incarcerated mothers and the maternal grandmothers and the quality of the current co-caregiving alliance were of particular interest. The fourth study examined co-parenting communication based on observations of 13 families with young children whose mothers were recently released from jail. In the fifth study, the impacts of a parent-management training intervention on individual functioning and family relationships were examined in a diverse sample of 359 imprisoned mothers and fathers. Taken together, these studies provide insight into the resilience processes in the children of incarcerated parents and their families. They provide the basis for further research on child development and family resilience in the context of children's separation from incarcerated parents. Tables and figures for each study and approximately 240 references