This peer-reviewed pan-European comparative research was conducted in light of reports which explore intergenerational offending and the adverse impacts on the estimated 800,000 children of offenders throughout the European Union.
This coupled with the evident lack of psychological research into, policy around or support for, this potentially vulnerable group of young people, inspired the COPING project. It is of particular interest to policy makers, campaigning organizations and interest groups in the UK and more widely in Europe. COPING brings together an international team of ten partner agencies to study the characteristics, vulnerabilities and resilience of children with a parent in prison in Germany, Sweden, Romania and the UK, as well as providing partners in France and Switzerland.
In each country group a research institution partnered with an NGO working with prisoners and their families. In the UK the University of Huddersfield partnered with POPS (Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group). The countries reflect a spectrum of socio-cultural issues, differing incarceration levels, policies, interventions and welfare provision that impact on children of prisoners. Using positive, psychological methodology where children are an authoritative source of knowledge, COPING aims to understand how the imprisonment of a parent really affects children, resiliency processes and the potential improvement the wellbeing of a child following appropriate support. This provides a theoretical framework to assess the value of these concepts for planning methods and techniques for successful interventions which minimise adverse mental health impacts on the child. The evidence base can be used for development of policy and interventions where little existed previously. Further, it can be used to identify gaps in the data sets in relation to Children of Prisoners in Europe that currently inhibit the development of policy to mitigate mental health risks. Following the findings, twelve detailed recommendations are made which concern a number of identified unmet needs, practices that need to change, a perception that needs to be addressed or an area of current policy that needs to be remedied. Conclusions note that COPING provides a more comprehensive, detailed and clearer picture of the effects of parental imprisonment on children's mental health, their resilience and the impact upon their families. It compellingly demonstrates that, as a group, children with imprisoned parents are at a significantly greater risk of suffering mental health difficulties than children who do not have parents in prison. COPING has spawned a small pilot study involving partners from Romania, Trinidad, Uganda and the UK into the role of grandparents in caring for children of prisoners which is hoped to be scaled up.
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