"Grief That No One Notices": Urban School Counselors' Perspectives Regarding Children of Incarcerated Parents

• In Event: School Counseling and Counselor Education Research

Abstract

The phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States is widely examined in the research literature. However, the perspectives of children of incarcerated parents may be underrepresented. Utilizing mixed qualitative methods, this study aimed to understand adolescent children’s insights regarding parental incarceration, and how the meaning they make from having a parent in jail or prison is situated in their lives. Drawn from the larger study, this paper explores how urban middle school counselors understand the connections between parental incarceration and the experience of grief for adolescents who have a parent in jail or prison. Findings revealed the everyday presence of loss in the lives of these adolescents, including complex presentations of grief involving shame, stigma, and disenfranchised grief.

Author

• Aubrey Uresti