BackHome
Refresh: OffView Personal Schedule
Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Young Children’s Reactions to an Experimental Assessment of a Mock Plexiglass Visit with their Mothers

Thu, March 21, 12:30 to 2:00pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 3, Room 318

Integrative Statement

Introduction: The experience of visiting an incarcerated parent can be stressful for children. Some factors that may affect children’s stress are the behavior of the caregiver who accompanies them, security measures, and the amount of time that is spent in the jail or prison (Poehlmann-Tynan, et al., 2017). Some research suggests that non-contact barrier visits, which are common in jail settings, and especially experiencing the plexiglass barrier that prevents the parent and child from engaging in physical contact, may be a key source of stress (Poehlmann, Dallaire, Loper & Shear, 2010). However, no studies have examined the specific effects of a plexiglass barrier on parent-child communication. In a laboratory environment, using a novel methodology with community families, we are able to control for a number of other variables to examine whether or not the presence of the plexiglass barrier alone is a source of stress for the child. We will also examine potential mediators of children’s reactions including children’s attachment to their mother and children’s emotion regulation skills.

Methods: 50 mother-child dyads have been recruited from the community to participate. Children (64% male) are between the ages of 4 and 6 (mean child age in months 66.72). (Data collection is ongoing with with an additional 100 dyads expected to participate). Participants are randomly assigned to participate in a 5-minute discussion task with (n = 23) or without (n = 27) a plexiglass barrier between the mother and child. All participants are instructed to use a telephone to communicate and to NOT physically touch each other during the 5 minute discussion task. Mothers are given additional prompts and instructions to help keep the child on task. Children’s heart rate is monitored continually throughout the discussion task with a child-sized fitness tracker device on their arm. Children self-report their positive and negative affect using the 10-item positive and negative affect scale for children (PANAS-CS, Ebesutani et al., 2012) before and after the discussion task. Additional data are collected on children’s behavior during the discussion task using Jail Prison Observation Checklist (JPOC; Poehlmann, 2013).

Results. Preliminary analyses examined Condition (1= Plexiglass; 0 = No Plexiglass) as a predictor of peak heart rate during the discussion task, with child age and gender entered as covariates in a one-way ANCOVA. Results show that Condition was a significant predictor of peak heart rate during the discussion task, F (1,40) = 4.08, p = .051, R2 = .185. A MANCOVA showed a trend, such that Condition moderately predicted to children’s self-report of negative affect following the discussion task, F (1,40) = 2.90, p = .096, R2 = .250, but did not not predict positive affect.

Conclusions: Preliminary findings from the current study offer new insights into children’s physiological and emotional response to communication with a parent through a plexiglass barrier, which is commonly used for visits in jail settings. This experimental, laboratory-based research complements field research done by colleagues with children and families in correctional facilities and highlights the importance of how parent-child visits are conducted when children have an incarcerated parent.

Authors