When Are You Coming Home? : How Young Children Cope When Parents Go to Jail

As the United States approaches its 50th year of mass incarceration, more children than ever before have experienced the incarceration of a parent. The vast majority of incarceration occurs in locally operated jails and disproportionately impacts families of color, those experiencing poverty, and rural households. However, we are only beginning to understand the various ways in which children cope with the incarceration of a parent – particularly the coping of young children who are most at risk for the adversity and also the most detrimentally impacted. __When Are You Coming Home?__ helps answer questions about how young ones are faring when a parent is incarcerated in jail. Situated within a resilience model of development, the book presents findings related to children’s stress, family relationships, health, home environments, and visit experiences through the eyes of the children and families. This humanizing, social justice-oriented approach discusses the paramount need to support children and their families before, during, and after a parent’s incarceration while the country simultaneously grapples with strategies of reform and decarceration. "As the United States approaches its 50th year of mass incarceration, more children than ever before have experienced the incarceration of a parent. The vast majority of incarceration occurs in locally operated jails and disproportionately impacts families of color, those experiencing poverty, and rural households. However, we are only beginning to understand the various ways in which children cope with the incarceration of a parent - particularly the coping of young children who are most at risk for the adversity and also the most detrimentally impacted. When Are You Coming Home? helps answer questions about how young ones are faring when a parent is incarcerated in jail. Situated within a resilience model of development, the book presents findings related to children's stress, family relationships, health, home environments, and visit experiences through the eyes of the children and families. This humanizing, social justice-oriented approach discusses the paramount need to support children and their families before, during, and after a parent's incarceration while the country simultaneously grapples with strategies of reform and decarceration"-- Provided by publisher Contents Foreword Preface 1 A National Tragedy: Introduction to Children with Incarcerated Parents 2 “Is Daddy Getting Taken Away?”: Parental Arrest and Family Separation 3 “Look, It’s My Family Together!”: Family Relationships during Parental Incarceration 4 “We’re Still Working on It”: Children’s Health and Development 5 “Just Temporary”: Caregiving and Children’s Home Environments 6 “It Is So Good to Hug You!”: Visiting and Other Forms of Parent-Child Contact 7 “Da-Da Gonna Play with Me Soon!”: Reintegration for Incarcerated Parents 8 Opportunities for Growth: Resilience and Its Implications for Intervention and Policy Appendix A Study Methods Appendix B Study Measures Acknowledgments Glossary References Notes on Contributors Index When Are You Coming Home? answers questions about how young children cope when parents go to jail. Told through the real stories of children, caregivers, and parents navigating parental incarceration, this book delves into the nuances that comprise children's well-being and family relationships. In doing so, it calls out contextual vulnerabilities while emphasizing resilience processes that shape how children make sense of being separated from parents and await their likely reunification.