Parental Attachment and Prosocial Behavior Predict Resilience among Adolescents of Incarcerated Parents

Abstract

Parental incarceration has a negative impact on the psychosocial health and well-being of adolescents. Yet, some of them are able to adapt themselves to such adverseconditions positively. The resiliencein adolescent children of incarcerated parents is little studied so far. Hence, the present study focuses on the factors predicting psychological resilience among this target population. One hundred fifty-five children of incarcerated parents (Males=48.4%, Female=51.2%)were recruited to participate in this study using the snowball-sampling technique. The data were collected from participants with self-report measures assessing psychosocial risk factors, psychosocial protective factors, emotion regulation, and resilience. The data were analyzed using regression analyses to identify predictors of psychological resilience among the participants. The results revealed that parental insecure attachment negatively and prosocial behavior positively predicted resilience among adolescents of incarcerated parents. The results also revealed that the negative impact of psychosocial risk factors on psychological resilience was mediated by emotion regulation strategies. Future research can focus on personality patterns, the role of school and community for the overall understanding of the target population.