AMPLIFYING THE PERSPECTIVES OF YOUTH WITH

EXPERIENCES OF PARENTAL INCARCERATION

THROUGH YOUTH PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH

Background: Youth Participatory Action

Research (YPAR) is an empowerment

approach in which a team of three young

adult researchers with experiences of family

member incarceration partnered with

University of Florida researchers and two

local community-based organizations

(Project YouthBuild, or PYB; River Phoenix

Center for Peacebuilding, or RPCP). The

young adult researchers participated in all

phases of research, taking a leadership role

in choosing the topic, population of focus,

and research methods. The young adult

researchers chose to ask the research

question, What are the strengths and

support needs of youth with incarcerated

parents? They collected 24 qualitative

questionnaires and completed one focus

group with Florida youth who have

experienced parental incarceration.

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SUMMARY OF RIVER PHOENIX CENTER FOR PEACEBUILDING YPAR PROJECT

PYB is an educational, occupational, and

leadership program for young people ages

16–24 from low-income backgrounds who

have dropped out of school.

RPCP is a community-based organization

that promotes best practices in

peacebuilding through dialogues and

workshops on conflict resolution and socialemotional learning.

Study design: The young adult researchers

chose to start at age 12 because youth

would, in their words, “know what’s going

on.” They chose to stop at 19, sharing that

youth are “grown” and less likely to be

impacted by support at 19. They chose to

focus on all races because they did not
want to perpetuate stereotypes, especially

for Black families. In their words, "everyone

can experience incarceration." The young

adult researchers chose focus groups and

qualitative questionnaires as their research

methods. They selected focus groups

because they felt that youth would be

willing to share with more people present

versus being "on the spot" in a one-on-one

interview. They chose questionnaires so

that youth could share privately anything

they did not feel comfortable sharing out

loud.

Youth–adult partnership: The adult partners

learned from the young adult researchers

that it is critical to conduct YPAR

programming in partnership with a trusted

organization, especially when working with

this population. In this specific case, the

young adult researchers graduated from

PYB, and RPCP conducted training within

their educational programming. The young

adult researchers shared that they would

not have joined the team if it was only

University of Florida researchers. When

reflecting on the partnership at the end of

the project, the young adults said, “I liked

that you always gave us a choice and let us

make decisions.”

Research conference: At a national

research conference, the young adult

researchers presented their project to an

audience of 75–100 academics,

practitioners, and activists. They described

the experience as empowering and

described it as the highlight of the project,

saying, for example, “it made me feel

important, like my opinion mattered,” and “it

made me feel more confident and like a

leader.” The conference also involved outof-state travel, which one young adult

described as a “once-in-a-lifetime

opportunity.”

Discussion: The results highlight a

discrepancy between the support youth

want and the support typically provided by

systems and recommended for families in

the broader research literature. Currently,

support mainly focuses on the parent during

re-entry, or assumed needs for children in

relation to the parent who was incarcerated.

During parental incarceration, supports

focus on visitation, parenting strategies, and

ways to increase family bonds. Youth also

sometimes receive formal services. Overall,

this study’s young adult researchers and

youth participants reported the need for

more informal and private support, including

support groups and settings where they can

be around others who have shared lived

experiences.

Stigma and recruitment challenges: Despite

recruiting within a trusted organization, and

a study designed by young adults with lived

experiences focused on strengths and

supports, recruitment was immensely

challenging. This challenge, and the

questionnaire responses, highlighted

continued stigma around having an

incarcerated parent. The young adult

researchers shared that their families told

them not to talk about it, so they were not

surprised by these challenges. It is therefore

important to address the stigma around

experiencing incarceration.
Reducing economic burden for non-incarcerated family members: Specifically,

reduce the cost of, or make free, opportunities to communicate with incarcerated

family members (e.g., phone calls, video chats). Youth also shared that allowing

incarcerated parents to work for a decent wage is one of the most important ways to

reduce economic burden. Youth described how not being able to work for pay (which

is the case in Florida) leads parents to fall behind on child support, impacting

economic opportunities for the broader family system.

Developmentally appropriate ways to discuss incarceration, so that youth can

process their feelings about it when it happens: Specifically, support parents in

talking to their children about incarceration soon after it occurs and provide support

for youth if they want to have boundaries with the incarcerated parent (e.g., not

wanting to hug).

The need for informal, non-traditional support: Youth shared that they did not feel

comfortable attending formal mental health services but wanted someone to talk to

outside of their family. They recommended providing youth-led emotional support in a

non-stigmatized place, and mentoring programs specifically for youth who have had

incarcerated parents, so that youth understand that the incarceration is not their fault

and that it becomes normalized because so many families experience incarceration.

Importance of privacy: Specifically, they shared that they did not like programs that

singled them out as a child needing help, like school backpack programs. They

recommended private support and a routinized way to inform schools/teachers, so

they know the bigger picture if problems occur.

Several key themes related to better supporting youth with incarcerated parents emerged

from both participant responses and the young adult researchers’ own experiences.

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KEY FINDINGS:

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