Global Study Finds Children of Incarcerated Parents Share Strength Across Cultures

Poehlmann, J., Brookes, L., Gordon, L., Park, K. H., Ssuubi, F., Sevenants, K., Carcedo González, R. J., Anandha Krishnan, C., Kahya, O., Pritzl, K., Loucks, N., Cadoni, L., & Lee, J. S. (2026). Children with incarcerated parents across the globe: Challenges and flourishing in five countries. Children and Youth Services Review, 188, Article 109104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2026.109104

Introduction

More than 22 million children worldwide have experienced a parent’s imprisonment (INCCIP, 2019), and parental incarceration is now recognized as an adverse childhood experience linked to worse health, mental health, and academic outcomes (Hughes et al., 2017, 2021; Sahle et al., 2022; Qu et al., 2024). Poehlmann and colleagues (2026) note that most existing research comes from just a handful of countries. The study was organized by the International Coalition for Children with Incarcerated Parents (INCCIP), a nonprofit built on the premise that decisions about this population should center affected children’s own perspectives rather than researcher-defined risk factors. Accordingly, the authors treat coping and flourishing as a primary research question, not an afterthought to risk. The paper draws on two theoretical traditions: flourishing models, which typically converge on six components—positive relationships, engagement, meaning, competence, positive emotions, and self-esteem (Agenor et al., 2017)—and multisystemic resilience models, which frame adaptation to hardship as an interaction between the individual and surrounding family, community, and cultural systems (Ungar et al., 2023; Masten, 2025).

Methods

The sample included 57 youth ages 11–20 (mean age 15), recruited through NGOs in Uganda (n=11), Spain (n=10), South Korea (n=10), New Zealand (n=11), and England (n=15). Countries were chosen specifically for being underrepresented in the literature and having local NGOs willing and ethically equipped to participate. Canada was originally included but dropped out after Canadian collaborators couldn’t enroll participants; Spain was added later when a local researcher agreed to use the team’s protocol. Partner NGOs varied from full residential care to lighter school-based support—meaning every youth in the sample had at least some connection to organized services, a point the authors flag as a limitation. Interviews covered nine topic areas, translated into local languages and conducted by NGO staff. This paper focuses on two question sets: one on emotional and health impacts, and a closing question asking what “helps make you strong.” Analysis followed Braun and Clarke’s (2006, 2022) six-phase thematic analysis, conducted by a four-person U.S.-based team with double-coding and consensus discussion. Spanish and Korean researchers checked translation accuracy, and participating NGOs reviewed selected quotes for cultural accuracy before finalization — a verification loop that checks interpretations against the people who supplied them, rather than relying solely on outside researchers.

Results

Five challenge themes emerged consistently across countries: initial emotional distress, physical and mental health impacts, family stress and role changes (including “forced maturity”), school and social impacts, and stigma and shame. Stigma was universal but sharpest in Uganda and South Korea—two Ugandan youth reported being chased from their villages, and one South Korean youth described feeling “embarrassed to be seen with” his formerly incarcerated father. Despite vast cultural and legal differences, youth across all five countries converged on similar sources of strength. Relationships were cited most often. About half of youth expressed pride in career or educational goals, often framed as wanting to “give back.” More than a third described personal growth or toughness gained through hardship. A smaller group described resisting the idea that they’d repeat a parent’s mistakes, and several Ugandan and South Korean youth cited spirituality as a coping resource—a theme absent elsewhere. Youth with an incarcerated mother (8 of 57) uniquely emphasized needing safe peer spaces to talk with others in similar situations. Youth with both parents incarcerated (also 8 of 57, concentrated in South Korea) described more ambiguous family reunification and somewhat more uncertainty about the future. The authors synthesize these findings into a layered model: trusted relationships as foundation, continued parental contact, personal growth through hardship, and hope at the peak.

Discussion

Poehlmann and colleagues describe their main finding as evidence that multisystemic resilience models hold up well across very different cultural settings. They note that the specific texture of stigma differed (harsher in Uganda and South Korea) but its underlying shape did not: in both places, youth described being held responsible, in the eyes of their community, for something they had no part in. The authors suggest this may reflect differences between more collectivist and more individualistic cultural contexts, though they flagged this as a hypothesis warranting further study rather than a settled conclusion.

Implications for Mentoring Programs

For organizations working with this population, relationships are consistently what young people themselves point to as the thing that helped most. That argues for programs that prioritize peer connection specifically for youth affected by maternal incarceration, who named the need for judgment-free peer spaces more explicitly than others in the sample, and for support that’s structured around what the authors call trauma-informed principles—support that youth experience as safe and non-judgmental rather than support that risks retraumatizing them or amplifying feelings of stigma.

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