Poster #91 - A Comparative Case Study of Risk and Resilience for Children Experiencing Homelessness and Parental Incarceration

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

More than 5 million U.S. children are impacted by the incarceration of a co-resident parent, with the majority under the age of 9 (Murphey & Cooper, 2015). In addition, many young children and families experience homelessness in the U.S., and families with very young children are the fastest growing homeless group (Haskett, 2017). Stark racial disparities exist in both of these risks. Homelessness and parental incarceration are often experienced in conjunction with additional traumatic experiences and risks, including poverty, traumatic separation, and witnessing a parent’s arrest (Dallaire & Wilson, 2010), contributing to cumulative adverse impacts on children (Haskett, Montgomery Armstrong, & Tisdale, 2015). Yet despite these risks, many young children exhibit competent functioning or resilience (Herbers, Cutuli, Monn, Narayan, & Masten, 2014). While we know the occurrence of homelessness and incarceration are interrelated (eg. James and Glaze 2006; Metraux and Culhane, 2006), few studies investigate how they interact to impact children’s and families’ lived experiences. The purpose of the current qualitative study is to begin addressing this gap, with an in-depth focus on young children who are currently experiencing parental incarceration and also currently or recently experienced homelessness.

Drawing from a larger, mixed method project focusing on families affected by parental incarceration, this study focuses on six families with young children between the ages of 32 and 59 months. Three target children are girls and three are boys. Three families self-identified as White, one as Black, one as multiracial, and one chose to not disclose. Most children had an incarcerated father and lived with their mother. One child had an incarcerated mother and lived with their father and paternal grandmother.

The current study utilizes a comparative case study method to explore family experiences over the course of the previous year. Comparative case studies explore phenomena via connections across and within cases (Bartlett & Vavrus, 2017). The current study utilizes this process-oriented, iterative lens to illuminate the connections between parental incarceration, homelessness, and resilience within and between the six families, guided by the Family Stress-Proximal Process model (Arditti, 2016), resilience theory (Masten, 2014), and attachment theory (Bowlby, 1982). The study incorporates a variety of methods, including observational measures of parent-child interactions and child-caregiver attachment, norm-referenced developmental and behavioral assessments, and questionnaires and interviews with caregivers and incarcerated parents about life events, residential stability, stress, and family functioning.

The results highlight the importance of proximal processes, including continued contact between the child and their incarcerated parent, sensitive and responsive caregiving, and environmental contexts that support those processes (see Table 1). When children had the opportunity for contact with their incarcerated parent, had caregivers who engaged in fewer disrupted communications during caregiver-child interactions (e.g. negative-intrusive behaviors, role-reversals), and whose caregivers reported low substance use, children showed higher levels of well-being and less externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Additionally, the results show variability in children’s experiences of risk and adaptation, emphasizing the importance of building on family strengths as well as addressing challenges. The presentation will also explore implications for future research, practice, and policy.

Authors

• Kerrie Ann Fanning, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Luke Muentner, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Julie Anne Poehlmann-Tynan, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Author