Promoting the psychosocial health of children of incarcerated parents and their non-incarcerated caregivers through the development and assessment of an intervention

Children of incarcerated parents comprise a greatly disadvantaged group with high needs that are largelyoverlooked by society. These children run a greater risk for a number of health-related outcomes, and owndelinquency. Research suggests that these children need support that focus on their resilience.

The non-incarceratedcaregiver is key here, but the caregiver may also be negatively affected by a partner’sincarceration and in need of support for the own well-being and to be able to support the child.Internationally, few support interventions for these children and caregivers have been evaluated scientifically.

InSweden, current support is uncoordinated, largely unavailable, and provided by non-profit organisations.

In fact,the responsible stakeholder, the Social Services, largely lacks knowledge about the children’s needs.Interventions to support child resilience in general focus on promotive factors of the child and context, whereparenting is emphasised.This project aims to develop and assess an evidence-based intervention that can be integratedinto existing Social Services to simultaneously support psychosocial health for the children ofincarcerated parents and their non-incarcerated caregivers.The project includes. 1.

Development phase: Co-creation of intervention with stakeholders and users on importantfeatures of an intervention (study 1) and implementation in the Social services (study 2) are explored.

Studies 1-2 together with results from systematic reviews which the applicant (ÅN) has been granted funding to conductduring 2021, will identify a suitable intervention. 2.

Evaluation phase: feasibility and intervention effects onpsychosocial outcomes are teste in a randomised controlled trial (study 3) and mediated effects are explored(study 4).This project will provide the Social Services with an evidens-based method to decrease these chidlren´s suffering and prevent future ill health, delinquency and marginalisation of the children and their caregivers.