success and Resilience Among Children of Incarcerated Parents

The objective of the project is to develop a better understanding of the factors that influence whether children will lead a crime-free life. Scholarship on parental incarceration centers mainly on the negative outcomes experienced by the millions of children left behind. This study will use interviews with children of incarcerated parents. Interview findings will be centered around the accomplishments, triumphs and resilient characteristics among children of incarcerated parents.

  • Resilience and achievements are important concepts to understand in the lives of COIP, especially among young adults. Not only does such insight provide balance to the current databank for scholarly works, it will help the children affected by this experience to also see themselves in a different light.Because incarceration is associated with extreme shame, stigma and silence, how these particular children feel about themselves takes on a greater significance. Parental incarceration has been found to have indescribable and long-lasting effects on the child psyche, which serves as a disadvantage to their ability to achieve throughout their childhood and into adulthood. This study shows that understanding and becoming empowered to verbalize one’s strengths can work to combat some of the negative effects experienced by children who have one or both parents serving a sentence of imprisonment.

    Research Report

  • The purpose of this digital conference is to highlight the importance of paradigm shifts in research, policy and available resources for those most affected. This online conference will focus on successes, triumphs, and resilience among children of incarcerated parents (COIP). Much of what is known about COIP focuses on a deficient based model. In other words, research has remained over saturated with the negative outcomes present in the lives of COIP. The purpose of this virtual conference is to highlight new research, narratives, and resources for COIP.

    Conference Recordings

  • Children of Incarcerated parents share their personal experiences and provide feedback about their feelings on various topics. As a historically hidden and silenced population this digital repository serves to highlight the lives, voices and faces of individuals that are dynamic in their own right. These narratives are representative of those interviewed through the national research study.

    Narratives Video Playlist

  • Children of Incarcerated parents share their personal experiences and provide feedback about their feelings on various topics. As a historically hidden and silenced population this digital repository serves to highlight the lives, voices and faces of individuals that are dynamic in their own right. These narratives are representative of those interviewed through the national research study.

    Book Exhibit Video Playlist