Impact of Parental Incarceration on Children and Families
Early Childhood Education Trauma Class
Topic: Parental Incarceration and its effects on children and families.
Prompt: For this coursework assignment you will prepare a minimum of a 6-page paper by answering the questions below. Make sure to do some research such as reading articles, journals, or books before answering the questions. Make sure to only use research articles within the past 5 years from the year 2016 to the present in the year 2021 unless the historical aspect is being presented.
Step #1: Discuss and include knowledge of theoretical frameworks learned in this class, such as Maslow’s "Hierarchy of Needs", Erik Erikson’s "Theory of Psychosocial Development", John Bowlby’s "Attachment Theory", Mary Ainsworth’s "The Strange Situation" and mention Urie Bronfenbrenner’s "Ecological Systems Theory". For example, explain how all these relate to incarcerated parents and their children.
Step #2: Provide research evidence along with a thorough explanation of how parental incarceration affects the child socially and through the stages of development.
Step #3: Discuss the experience of the incarcerated parent who cannot be present in their child’s life?
Step #4: Discuss the trauma of the child with an incarcerated parent.
Step #5: Discuss how having an incarcerated parent affects the outcome of the family as a whole.
Step #6: Discuss the change in the family dynamics when a parent is arrested, as well as the behavioral changes that can be exhibited by the child at the time of the parent’s arrest and the understanding of the child that their parent will not be returning home due to the parent being in jail or incarcerated.
Step #7: Examine and explain the differences for a child between losing a mother who is incarcerated versus losing a father who is incarcerated. For example, are the effects the same or different for a child when a mother is incarcerated compared to when a father is incarcerated? W
Step #8: Examine the plight of mothers who give birth in prison and the issues of bonding for children aged 0 to 5 years old.
Step #9: Discuss the difficulties fathers face trying to remain connected to their children, particularly, their male children.
Step #10: As a childhood educator, how can you as the teacher empower and support the parents once they are released without putting yourself in harm’s way? Discuss the resources can you provide to support the formerly incarcerated parents and their children.
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Assignment Guidelines
* Must be a minimum of 6 full pages.
* Must be in Times New Roman Font Size 12 with 1-inch margins all around.
• Make sure your paragraphs have a minimum of 5 sentences.
• Must be in APA 7 format
*Must have a minimum of 5 different educational citations. For example, citations can be from articles, books, journals, etc…
*Must have a reference page. In this case, you must at least a minimum of 5 different references.
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Notes to the Writer:
The following below are some PDF files with information that could be helpful with this assignment to use as references. You do not have to use all of them only used the ones that you think you can use as references.
Note #1: I uploaded the PDF File titled “Ecological models of human development” by Urie Bronfenbrenner
Note #2: I uploaded the PDF file titled “Families and incarceration an ecological approach” by Joyce Arditti
Note #3: I uploaded the PDF file titled “Supporting your child when a parent is in jail” by Amanda Harris
Note #4: I uploaded the PDF file titled “Exploring the School to Prison Pipeline How School Suspensions Influence Incarceration During Young Adulthood by Paul Hemez, John J. Brent, and Thomas J. Mowen
Note #5: I uploaded the PDF file titled “The School to Prison Pipeline Disproportionate Impact on Vulnerable Children and Adolescents” by Christopher A. Mallett
Note #6: I uploaded the PDF file titled “Mass incarceration and children’s outcomes” by Leila Morsy and Richard Rothstein
Note #7: I uploaded the PDF file titled “How Parental Incarceration Harms Children and What to Do About It” by Sara Wakefield and Christopher Wildeman
Note #8: I uploaded the PDF file titled “Hidden Consequences: The Impact of Incarceration on Dependent Children” by Eric Martin
Note #9: I uploaded the PDF File titled “Mass Incarceration and Child Trauma” by Mary Kelly Persyn
Note #10: I uploaded the PDF file titled “What About Me? When A Parent Goes to Prison: A guide to discussing your incarceration with your children by New Jersey Department of Corrections Divisions of Programs and Community Services Office of Transitional Services
Note #11: I uploaded the PDF File titled “Incarcerated Parenting: How Family Relationships can be Beneficial” by Bailey Porter
Note #12: Feel free to use other sources you find just as long as they meet the requirements.
Note #13: Also below are web articles from websites that can be useful to use as references
Note #14: Here is a web article titled “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2020” by By Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner
The article can read here at the following website: https://www(dot)prisonpolicy(dot)org/reports/pie2020.html
Note #15: Here is a web article titled “OPINION: The invisible toll of mass incarceration on childhood development” by Dana Suskind
You can read the web article mentioned in Step #6 here at https://hechingerreport(dot)org/opinion-sentenced-at-birth-the-invisible-toll-of-mass-incarceration-on-childhood-development/
Note #16: Here is a web article titled “Creating Inclusive Schools: How to Support Students with Incarcerated Parents” by Teach.com
The link to view the article is located here: https://teach(dot)com/resources/counseling-students-incarcerated-parents/
Note #17: Here is a web article titled “article titled “Let's Make It Easier for Kids to Visit Incarcerated Parents” by Jaime Joyce.
The link to view the web article is located here: https://www(dot)themarshallproject(dot)org/2019/05/10/let-s-make-it-easier-for-kids-to-visit-incarcerated-parents
Note #18: You do not have to use all of the web articles only used the ones that you think you can use as references.
Note #19: Feel free to use other web articles you find just as long they the requirements.
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Thank you for your time
Parental Incarceration and its Effects
Student’s Name
Institution
Parental Incarceration and its Effects
Introduction
Child development is a complex and delicate aspect of human development and many scholars and psychologists have come up with several theories to elaborate on the complexities associated with it. One striking similarity among the various theories is the influence that those in close contact with the infant, or rather attached to the infant, have on the child's development. Psychologist Abraham Maslow, in his popular theory of human needs, emphasized that biological and psychosocial needs including basic needs such as food and shelter should be met at the early stage of development to ensure healthy growth and development (Hopper, 2020). Erik Erikson, in his theory of psychosocial development, concurred with the various advocates of attachment theories including Mary Ainsworth on the notion that the child depends solely on the primary caregivers to develop a sense of trust and security (McLeod, 2018). Urie Bronfenbrenner, on the other hand, focused on the ecological aspects that influence an infant's growth and development, placing the caregivers at the center of the infant's microsystem (Brofenbrenner, 1994). In the context of an incarcerated parent, the different theories concur that the child would lack the basic needs for healthy growth and development; the child is deprived of the primary source of basic need according to Maslow, while in the case of Erik and Ainsworth, the child is stripped of a sense of trust and security that are all fundamental to growth and development.
Parental Incarceration and Child Social Development
The impact that parental incarceration has on the overall development of a child is undisputed and far-reaching. Antisocial behaviors among children with incarcerated parents are very common and they manifest in the form of being a criminal gang member or being dishonest, a social attribute that deviates from the morally accepted values (Martin, 2017). Another social aspect consequential of parent incarceration touches on education where children with their parents locked away become prone to suspension and expulsion in their prime schooling ages (Martin, 2017). Children of incarcerated parents are also more likely to fall victims to the justice system in the future. This is evident by the unfortunate statistics that one in every four black Americans, who are the most dominant victims of parental incarceration are bound to end up in jail at some point (Morsy & Rothstein, 2016). The cognitive impacts of missing parents due to incarceration can also escalate to social impact, where the victim of depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders associated with parental incarceration becomes susceptible to thoughts that are not socially condonable such as suicidal thoughts.
Experiences of Incarcerated Parents
Mass incarceration of parents not only impacts the child but also the imprisoned parents experience massive damages. Incarceration does not only deprive the parents of an opportunity to build a social connection with society but also alienates them from being a member of the most important social unit, which is the family (Porter, 2018). The disconnect with the parents also impacts the behavior of the inmate while serving a sentence and might even make the inmate have intermittent bad behaviors. As much as the child with incarcerated parents suffers stigma, so do the parent serving sentence, which can further escalate to a mental problem. The social justice system whose biasness is undisputed even in historical context often subjects the prisoners to social devaluation, further exacerbating the stigmatization and making them prone to repeat imprisonment (Arditti, 2005).
Childhood Trauma and Incarceration
Mental health problems are certain to arise among children with incarcerated parents. At the helm of the mental health issues affecting children of incarcerated parents is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to Morsy and Rothstein (2016), children of incarcerated parents are 72 percent more likely to fall victim to PTSD. The trauma suffered by children sired by incarcerated parents can be attributed to several factors including the stigma, burden of absent parents, shame, stereotyping, and even merely witnessing the arrests of parents (Persyn, 2017). Bearing in mind the damages that trauma may cause on the children, educational programs aimed at salvaging the dire situation of trauma resulting from incarceration should be a priority. All the key players in the care programs and justice system should be made aware of the traumatic experiences that children undergo when their parents are incarcerated for them to wholly embrace strategies of helping these children.
Incarceration and the Family
The mere fact that incarceration alienates the parents who might be the sole provider of the family from the rest of the members inflicts a lot of suffering to the entire family where they might lack the very basic need such as shelter and food. Parent incarceration is highly stigmatized in society, further inflicting lots of emotional distress to the relatives and family members of the incarcerated (Arditti, 2005). According to Arditti (2005), incarceration hardly attracts any form of sympathy from the rest of the community, pushing the family members of the incarcerated to the brink of acute loneliness. Imprisonment does not only deprive the family of the physical connection with their relatives but also is a cause for emotional and psychological distress to the rest of the family. The strong bonds expected of a family cease to exist in a case where a family member falls victim to incarceration, even having an impact on the subsequent generations. Children and future generations of incarcerated parents find it hard to establish strong bonds and even form new interpersonal relationships with others, owing to the immense suffering and stigmatization resulting from the experience of parental incarceration.
Changes in Family Dynamics
Imprisonment of a member of the family especi...
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