The unforeseen repercussions of incarceration : children of incarcerated parents in Maltese society

Abstract

Parental incarceration is a pivotal experience for children, involving numerous adverse consequences. This phenomenon has been increasingly researched, in pursuit of understanding the unique needs of children of incarcerated parents. In the Maltese context, however, research on this topic is scarce and this study sought to fill this gap in the literature. This research provides an explanatory framework about children’s experience of parental incarceration in Malta, by retrospectively exploring how children of incarcerated parents negotiated parental incarceration, the risks they encountered and the strengths developed, and the navigation of these with family, peers, school and the wider community. Adopting a risk and resilience framework and guided by a symbolic interactionist approach, this study explores trajectories of eight adult children who experienced parental incarceration during middle/late childhood and/or adolescence. Through an evolved grounded theory methodology, a substantive-level theory, grounded in emergent data, is presented. The theory outlines how the developmental trajectory of children of incarcerated parents features many risks and adverse repercussions, namely the experience of the loss of the incarcerated parent, disruptions in the home and school settings, exposure to the Criminal Justice System, impact on the parent-child relationship, and the encounter of courtesy stigma. However, it was concluded that these repercussions may be mitigated through open communication within a supportive environment and maintaining a positive parent-child relationship with the incarcerated parent. Ultimately, this facilitates sufficient development, featuring adaptation, adjustment, and resilience. This study is significant as it makes several recommendations for practice, policy and service development, and future research.