How prisoners and their partners experience the maintenance of their relationship during a prison sentence

Trajectories of incarcerated coparenting: Examining differences across race and ethnicity

Emerging research suggests that those coparenting with an incarcerated person experience multiple challenges. Examining incarcerated coparenting among minority fathers is especially salient as their incarceration rates are substantially higher than White males. This study utilized data from the Multi-Site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting and Partnering Study to examine changes in coparenting relationships when the male partner was incarcerated. Theoretically guided by structural family therapy, latent growth models were used to evaluate trajectories of fathers' coparenting reliability and coparenting cohesion across 34 months. Results indicated average declines within incarcerated men's reported coparenting responsibility and coparenting cohesion with their partner. Incarcerated men with higher relationship quality at T1 was significantly associated with higher initial levels of coparenting cohesion and coparenting responsibility-but not with the trajectories of coparenting change. Incarcerated fathers identifying as Hispanic and Other declined at a significantly steeper rate in coparenting responsibility than Black and White incarcerated fathers. Clinical implications and future research directions are provided.

Incarcerated Loved Ones: Building a Community to Support and Advocate on Facebook

Individuals with an incarcerated loved one are often overlooked when discussing the impacts of incarceration. It can be difficult for these individuals to navigate the criminal justice system, as well as form meaningful connections and obtain support from others that are experiencing a similar situation. Social media allows for connections to be made between individuals in similar situations that might not be geographically close to one another. Specifically, for those with an incarcerated loved one, the Facebook group "Incarcerated Loved Ones" allows for meaningful connection to others who are navigating incarceration. Posts were collected from this Facebook group, with the themes emerging including COVID, information seeking, and advocacy. Findings, as well as future directions, will be discussed.

Romantic attachment, childhood stability, depression, and PTSD in couples with an incarcerated partner

Incarceration has a multitude of effects on prisoners' finances, health, education, employment, and family relationships. Incarceration complicates the maintenance of attachment bonds between romantic partners. Data from the Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting, and Partnering were analyzed to examine the effects of childhood stability on adult romantic attachment while controlling for the effects of PTSD and depression within the carceral population. Findings indicate that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression have statistically significant effects on adult romantic attachment. PTSD on romantic attachment for men is statistically significant (p < 0.05) at -0.193 with an overall standardized effect of -0.086. For women, the effect is statistically significant (p < 0.01) at -0.235 with an overall standardized effect of -0.1. Effects of depression on romantic attachment for men is statistically significant (p < 0.001) -0.129 with an overall standardized effect of -0.229. For women, depression is also statistically significant (p < 0.001) at -0.153 with a standardized effect of -0.265. We examined the effects of childhood stability on adult romantic attachment while controlling for the effects of PTSD and depression within the carceral population. Findings supported our hypothesis that individuals with better childhood stability will experience better romantic attachments. Findings related to our hypothesis that having a partner with better childhood stability is positively associated with better romantic attachment produced mixed results. Clinical implications are discussed, and future directions call for research, practice, and training to improve outcomes for justice-involved romantic partners, their attachment, and consideration of covariates of depression and PTSD.