Children who have parents in prison are affected mentally, socially, behavioral, and academic performance. The United States is the leader in incarceration, with approximately 2.2 million people currently in jails, which is an increase of 500% for the last forty years (Morgan 2018, p. 200). The high rate shows that almost 2 million children in America have at least one parent in prison, as indicated by the U.S Bureau of Statistics. Nearly 20% of children whose patients are serving imprisonment are less than four years, 60% are aged 5 to 14 years, while 16% are aged 16 to 17 years (Morgan, 2018, p. 201). Some parents get terminated their parental rights, and their children are taken to foster care for the time decided by the law. While at foster care, these children rely on the local, state, and federal government to satisfy their needs. Children who had little contact with their parents might be affected minimally and benefit from been separated from violent and dangerous parents. The paper will focus on the effect of parental incarceration on children's psychology, emotional and academic performance, and various therapies and support given to the children to help them cope with the situation. Ecological approach, use of empathy as a protective factor, Trauma‑Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF‑CBT), Trauma-informed care services, and mentoring are essential therapeutic approach addressed to help children with imprisoned parents.
Incarceration of parents leads to adverse effects like financial insecurity, strain in an interpersonal relationship, raise emotional events, and affect the social relationship. Children face emotional trauma, and practical difficulties of disruption of family life compounded by social stigma experienced when their parents go to prison. Most of these children are forced to adapt to changes in lifestyle arising from financial hardship due to the loss of a parent's job. When a family member and caregiver conceal the truth about the whereabouts of the mother or father, children can develop worse mental and physical behavior and poor academic performance. According to Morgan (2018, p.201), the incarceration of parents leads to an exhibition of complex trauma-related stress symptoms like isolation from peers, anxiety, and struggle in forming a healthy interpersonal relationship. Also, these children reveal other problems like difficulty in sleeping emotional withdrawal from the rest of the family and substance use leading to long-term psychological and emotional functioning problems. When parents get imprisoned, the future and liberty of their children are affected, and the children are placed at risk of getting involved in future criminal justice ( Shlafer et al., 2009, p.509) . Research conducted by the U.S Department of Justice shows that if adequate intervention is not provided to these children, 70% end up following the footsteps of their parents and end in juvenile or adult criminal justice (Morgan, 2018, p. 207). Increased insecurity of resources and finances makes children of incarcerated parents rely on public assistance to get basic needs. These children have to cope with the constant interruption of phone and electricity for failing to pay bills and rental and mortgage issues. When these problems arise, the children get affected psychologically.
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An ecological approach to incarceration focuses on understanding the effect that parent's imprisonment on the children, especially in the interrelationship between members of the family, environment, and society. The interconnection causes harm and strains the relationship between parents and children and relations with the community at large. These children are a vulnerable population, and they become "invisible population" due to stigmatization. After the imprisonment of their parents, the children develop traumatic symptoms hence requires to undergo therapy treatment to help them cope with the situation. Morgan (2018, p. 202) shows that children whose parents are incarcerated reveal complex trauma resulting from constant traumatic experiences like poverty, racism, reduced social mobility, and a low chance of getting employment. Secondary traumas like abandonment, homelessness, and poverty are believed to be a mediating variable for the development of trauma symptoms.
Children with incarcerated parents reveal a problem with their social life when interacting with teachers, fellow students, and the entire society, which affects their education performance. Research conducted by Dallaire et al. (2010, p. 282) shows that children with imprisoned parents struggle academically since the schools cannot offer the children a better pathway to achieve a stable life. Children below the age of ten whose fathers were imprisoned or have been in prison for a while revealed lower IQ scores and low achievement on standardized tests. Also, children whose mothers are incarnated reveal low IQ and have poor behavior, which led to increased cases of suspension. Research shows that approximately 45% of children with imprisoned parents have minimal interest in school (Dallaire et al.,2010, p. 281). All these academic and behavior challenges affect the success of students in school and contribute to high cases of school drop-out. According to Dallaire et al. (2010, p. 286), children who have mothers in incarceration review instances of high school drop-out, frequent suspension, poor performance, and high cases of school absenteeism. Also, the poor academic performance of these children is caused by living in a chaotic family environment, disruption of attachment, and emotional difficulties. The ecological system theory shows that the incarceration of a parent affects the academic development of children. Proximal interaction of children with a significant socializing adult is a crucial microsystem context like home and school and also in exploring the connection between systems. Teachers usually expect all students to be competent and perform excellently, similar to other students. These students experience unique stressors in the school setting, which affect their performance. The quality of caregiving is among the most significant risk affecting children with imprisoned parents (Skinner-Osei & Levenson, 2018, p.425). Teachers show that most of these students question the quality of care they will get and what will happen to them in the future. As children continue expressing these changes in behavior, emotions, and stigmatization, their relationship with teachers and other student become strained leading to poor performance and even drop-out of school.
After the imprisonment of a parent, children experience a risk of external and internal behavior problems, which might contribute to the continuous intergeneration of the cycle of crime and, finally, imprisonment. Empathy is an effective protective factor for this vulnerable population. Research conducted by Dallaire & Zeman (2013, p.7) shows that children with imprisoned parents face difficulties in their caregiving environment like poverty, abusive parents, social withdrawal, inadequate food, rents, and several others, which leads to psychological torture. These children require to be shown empathy by society through the provision of basic needs like food, houses, education, and getting adequate care and love. Empathy involves the understanding and sharing of the emotional state to enhance socio-emotional development. Attachment theory uses a framework like temperament and behavioral to show why children of imprisoned parents are a risk population and how the situation can lead to resilience behavior when taken to foster care. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the provision of Early Care to these children provides more attachment security, which offers protection against contextual risks (Dallaire & Zeman,2013, P. 8). Attachment security, like enhancing emotional awareness and responding in an empathetic manner, promotes empathy. Through the use of empathy, these children are guided through prosocial behavior and psychological behavior, which lead to criminal activities. Empathetic response helps to reduce psychological, mental, and aggressive behavior shown by children with incarcerated parents.
Trauma‑Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF‑CBT) is an effective treatment for trauma in children who experience post-traumatic stress disorder and trauma-related symptomatology after the incarceration of their parents. Trauma‑Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF‑CBT) reduces trauma-related symptoms among children through undertaking individual and family counseling sessions. Research shows that TF-CBT therapy is useful in the treatment of PTSD, depression, anxiety, behavioral, cognitive, relationship, and other problems (Morgan, 2018, p. 204). TF-CBT is an effective strategy in the treatment of trauma from vulnerable populations like children of incarcerated parents who have a high possibility of engaging in violence, suicide, and substance use. For children who are placed under foster care, TF-CBT therapy sessions are useful for enhancing the relationship between children and caregivers. According to Morgan (2018), children who engage in substance abuse after the incarceration of their parents reveal higher positive results when treated with CF-CBT compared to treatment like Child-Centered Therapy (CCT). Similar to other treatments, TF-CBT adheres to the precise treatment model of screening and treatment. The therapist conducting TF-CBT must possess psychoeducation of the child’s trauma and PTSD symptoms, individualized stress-management skills, affective modulation skills, and cognitive triad (Morgan, 2018, p. 206). Through the use of TF-CBT intervention, the stigmatization experience of children with incarcerated parents is addressed, and a clinical approach to help these children is implemented. The therapists provide the caregiver with adequate knowledge and skills to allow them to expand their psychotherapy while at home.
Trauma-informed care services help children experiencing the trauma of family separation, social isolation, mental torture, and other adverse events resulting from the incarceration of their parents. Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a framework of service delivery that uses universal precautions approach. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides a guideline for describing the concept of TIC applicable to children with incarcerated parents ( Skinner-Osei & Levenson, 2018, p.422) . The primary goal of TIC is to incorporate knowledge about the biopsychosocial effects of trauma into policies and practices of the foster care unit. TIC responds to every client and uses personal experience to solve the existing trauma and avoid retraumatization. Some of the issues addressed by TIC include loss of parental attachment, chaotic environment, and related behavioral difficulties. Other problems solved by TIC include social stigma, academic consequences, and physical health. Upon recognizing these trauma symptoms faced by children of incarcerated parents, it becomes easy for the therapists and caregivers to correct the behavior and help the child cope with the situation ( Skinner-Osei & Levenson, 2018, p.428). When issuing trauma-informed care services, the caregiver should use person-first language, reframe resistance, avoid confrontational approach, and use social work relationship as corrective experience.
Mentoring is an effective strategy for helping children with incarcerated parents. Mentoring helps the children to cope with the psychological and mental torture, trauma, and social isolation. Policymakers have come up with formalized mentoring programs like Big Brothers/Big Sisters [BBBS]) to help young people struggling with psychological, mental, trauma, and poor academic performance resulting from the incarceration of a parent (Shlafer et al., 2009, p. 507). Children require mentorship and advice from role-models like teachers and other members of society to cope with the hardship. Attachment theory is applied in mentorship to help in understand how supportive adults can influence children of an incarcerated parent positively. Mentorship programs are effective for such children who reveal loss and develop insecurity after the incarceration of a parent. Mentorship involves creating positive relationships within educational, clinical, and recreational sectors. After the end of mentorship programs, content analysis is conducted to show the experience of the mentor-child relationship, the quality of a mentor-child relationship, the behavior of children's problems, and feelings about family relationships. Shlafer et al. (2009, p.516) show that mentorship is the first step to understand the need of these children. Mentorship should be embraced and tailored to address issues related to psychological, social, and trauma problems.
In summary, children with incarcerated parents face several psychological, emotional, traumatic, and social problems that contribute to defiant and criminal behavior. Most of these children struggle with parental separation, financial constraints, living in a new environment in foster care, and psychological torture, which leads to withdrawal from the society, indulgence in substance use, criminal activities, suicidal thoughts, aggressiveness, and poor academic performance. These children are a vulnerable population who requires adequate care intervention to help them cope with the situation. Some of the responses include an ecological approach, use of empathy as a protective factor, Trauma‑Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF‑CBT), Trauma-informed care services, and mentoring. Immediately after the incarceration of their parents, these children require immediate care and guidance to nurture their interaction and behavior. When given adequate foster care and shown empathy by society, children with incarcerated parent get a chance to rehearse healthy interpersonal skills and become good people in the future.
References
Dallaire, D. H., & Zeman, J. L. (2013). Empathy as a protective factor for children with incarcerated parents. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development , 78 (3), 7-25.
Dallaire, D. H., Ciccone, A., & Wilson, L. C. (2010). Teachers' experiences with and expectations of children with incarcerated parents. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology , 31 (4), 281-290.
Morgan-Mullane, A. (2018). Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy with children of incarcerated parents. Clinical social work journal , 46 (3), 200-209.
Shlafer, R. J., Poehlmann, J., Coffino, B., & Hanneman, A. (2009). Mentoring children with incarcerated parents: Implications for research, practice, and policy. Family Relations , 58 (5), 507-519.
Skinner-Osei, P., & Levenson, J. S. (2018). Trauma-informed services for children with incarcerated parents. Journal of Family Social Work , 21 (4-5), 421-437.
