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Children’s Contact with Incarcerated Parents: Summary and Recommendations

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Children’s Contact with Incarcerated Parents

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Psychology ((ACFPP))

Abstract

One in 28 children in the United States has a parent behind bars and even more children are affected if one examines risk for having an incarcerated parent across childhood. Given these statistics, it is not surprising that children are common visitors in corrections facilities. Because children are frequent visitors and the experiences can be emotionally intense for children and their family members, it is important to examine policies, procedures, and interventions that might improve the experience of visitation and other forms of contact for this vulnerable group of children. In the summary of this monograph, I first discuss important considerations when examining parent–child contact and delineate several methodological contributions of the papers in this volume. I then offer suggestions relating to changes in policies, procedures, and practices that may improve the experience of parent–child contact during parental incarceration as well as fostering the well-being of affected children and families.

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Acknowledgements

When writing this chapter, Dr. Poehlmann-Tynan was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R21HD068581, PI: Poehlmann and P30HD03352, PI: Mailick) and the University of Wisconsin. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. Special thanks to J. Mark Eddy, Ph.D., for his input on this chapter.

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Correspondence to Julie Poehlmann-Tynan Ph.D. .

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Poehlmann-Tynan, J. (2015). Children’s Contact with Incarcerated Parents: Summary and Recommendations. In: Poehlmann-Tynan, J. (eds) Children’s Contact with Incarcerated Parents. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16625-4_5

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