| dc.description.abstract | In the U.S., about 7% of children have a parent who was incarcerated, which indicates
that more than five million children have experienced a parental incarceration. This figure does
not include non-custodial parents and caregivers. Research shows that children who experience
parental incarceration may be exposed to enduring trauma relating to attachment insecurity with
primary caregivers, financial and housing instability, mental and behavioral disorders (Luk et al.,
2023; Turney & Goodsell, 2018; Wildeman et al., 2018). Such experiences may threaten
children’s development and make them more likely than children with non-offending parents to
become future offenders (Craig & Farrington, 2021). However, protective processes such as the
bonds that form within the child-caregiver emotional relationship may provide more knowledge
about the formation of children’s resilience and assist in managing the emotional challenges of a
parental incarceration. To date, no studies have explored the process and development of
protective processes within the child- caregiver relationship for children with incarcerated
parents. In this study, I sought the experiences of child-caregiver dyads to understand the
protective processes that exist within their emotional relationship. This study employed grounded
theory to inductively explore the protective processes within the child-caregiver emotional relationship. Through semi-structured interviews with four elementary school-aged child-caregiver dyads, data were analyzed using constant comparison to identify emerging categories
and concepts. I found that children with incarcerated parents expressed sadness, confusion, and anger about their parents’ absence. Most child-participants expressed feelings of sadness and anger which translated into social and emotional challenges when interacting with others (i.e.,shyness, trust). Despite these challenges, caregivers were able to support children by being emotionally and physically present and providing them with activities and outlets (e.g., sports) that buffered the emotional effects of parental incarceration. Both children and caregivers built resiliency through the emotional closeness within their relationships, religion, community support, and communication with the incarcerated parent. The results yielded a model named the Reciprocal Resilience Model, which shows that emotional resilience was collaboratively built through the emotional closeness of the child-caregiver bond, spiritual faith, strong community support, and maintenance of communication with the incarcerated parent. The research identifies the emotional challenges of children with an incarcerated parent experience and describes for the first time the supports caregivers provide for children. The results suggest ways in which the caregiver bonds may generate the development of children’s emotional resilience through the child-caregiver relationship. This
research illuminates the vital role of the child-caregiver relationship in fostering emotional resilience, offering insights into developing strength-based interventions and policies. | en_US |
