National Resource Center on Children & Families of the Incarcerated

Research Reviews

These publications provide (a) critiques and commentaries on the methods used in studying children whose parents are in prison, or (b) systematically examine published research in an effort to assess the quality and strength of evidence pertaining to a particular research issue.

  • Axelson, A., & Boch, S. (2019). A Hidden Epidemic: Parental Incarceration and What To Do When It Affects Your Patients – Pediatrics Nationwide. Pediatrics Nationwide. https://pediatricsnationwide.org/2019/09/18/a-hidden-epidemic-parental-incarceration-and-what-to-do-when-it-affects-your-patients/

  • Bars, L. B. Poverty Fact Sheet.

  • Brazzell, D. (2008). Using local data to explore the experiences and needs of children of incarcerated parents. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Justice Policy Center. Available from .

  • Chui, W. H. (2016). Incarceration and Family Stress as Understood through the Family Process Theory: Evidence from Hong Kong. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. 

  • Church, W. T., & Springer, D. W. (2018). Serving the stigmatized: Working within the incarcerated environment. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

  • Conway, J., & Jones, E. (2015, March). Seven Out of Ten? Not Even Close.A Review of Research on the Likelihood of Children with Incarcerated Parents Becoming Justice-Involved. Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy – The Children with Incarcerated Parents Initiative.

  • Eddy, B. A., Powell, M. J., Szubka, M. H., McCool, M. L., & Kuntz, S. (2001). Challenges in research with incarcerated parents and importance in violence prevention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 20(1), 56-62.
  • Johnson, E. I., & Arditti, J. A. (2022). Risk and Resilience Among Children with Incarcerated Parents: A Review and Critical Reframing. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 19.
  • Larson, A., & Swanson, M. (2008). Identifying children with incarcerated parents: The child welfare data environment. CW360, Spring, 2008.

  • Loper, A. B., & Tuerk, E. H. (2006). Parenting programs for incarcerated parents: Current research and future directions. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 17(4), 407-427.

  • Maruna, S. (2016). Time to Get Rid of the Skid Bid? What Good Are Short Stays of Incarceration? 98-102

  • Murphey, D., & Cooper, M. (2015, October). Parents Behind Bars. What Happens to Their Children? Child Trends

  • Phillips, S. D., Gleeson, J. P., & Waites-Garrett, M. (2009). Substance-abusing parents in the criminal justice system: Does substance abuse treatment improve their children’s outcomes? Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 48, 120-138.

  • Rodriguez, N. (2016). Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice. The Role of Science in Addressing the Effects of Incarceration on Family Life, 231-240.  
  • Sabol, W. J., (2016). Could Linked Data Help Us to Better Understand The Macrolevel Consequences of Mass Imprisonment? 213-221. 

  • Saneta deVuono-powell, Chris Schweidler, Alicia Walters, and Azadeh Zohrabi. Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on Families. Oakland, CA: Ella Baker Center, Forward Together, Research Action Design, 2015.

  • Tadros, E. (2021). The impact of incarceration on coparenting: A review of the literature. Journal of Family Social Work, 24(5), 382-397.
  • Tadros, E., Hutcherson, R., & Aguirre, N. (2022). How is Family Therapy Discussed in the Literature on Incarceration?: A Systematic Review. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 1-19.

  • Tasca, M. (2015, March). It’s Not All Cupcakes and Lollipops: Investigation of the Predictors and Effects of Prison Visitation for Children during Maternal and Paternal Incarceration. Arizona State University.

  • The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2016,April). A Shared Sentence The Devastating Toll of Parental Incarceration on Kids, Families and Communities. Baltimore, MD

  • Uggen, C. (2016). Records, Relationships, and Reentries. How Specific Punishment Conditions Affect Family Life, 142-148. 

  • Wildeman, C. (2014, September). Parental Incarceration and Child Well being. Osborne Association’s New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents and the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Retrieved from https://www.osborneny.org/nyinitiative

  • Wildeman, C. J., Wakefield, S., & Lee, H. (2016). Tough on crime, tough on families?: Criminal justice and family life in America. Los Angeles: Sage.

  • Wildeman, C., & Wang, E. A. (2017). Mass incarceration, public health, and widening inequality in the USA. The Lancet, 389(10077), 1464-1474.

  • Wildeman, C. J., Haskins, A. R., & Poehlmann-Tynan, J. (2018). When parents are incarcerated: Interdisciplinary research and interventions to support children. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.