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Abstract
Through semistructured interviews, this study explores reentry-related expectations and experiences among adolescents whose parents are or were recently incarcerated (n = 11). Results suggested a common thread of discrepancy in participants’ lives, particularly in terms of conceptions of family, salience of mature topics, and expectations for reentry. Results further suggested that youth who had multiple family members with incarceration histories were especially attuned to mature topics and that participants who were exclusively hopeful about their parent's reentry either had limited contact with them prior to incarceration or had positive, transformative experiences with them during the incarceration period.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the young people who shared their stories with us, the family members and caregivers who supported their participation in the study, and the community-based organization that helped us recruit participants. We are also grateful to Carla Garrett, Lily Heine, and Jennifer Zorotovich for their able research assistance, and to Kathy Fitzgerald for helpful conversations about phenomenology and qualitative interviewing techniques.
Notes
Because Hailey appeared to be uncomfortable with the mention of her father, the interviewer felt that it would be ethically inappropriate to pursue questions about her father and his incarceration. The remainder of the interview was a discussion, instead, of her mother, her hobbies, school, and daily life experiences without discussing incarceration or her father.