Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Human Services

Advisor

Tracey M. Phillips

Abstract

In the last decade, the number of grandparents in the United States acting as caregivers for children who have incarcerated parents has increased significantly. Incarceration separates individuals from their families and limits contact with the outside world. The imprisoned parent is dependent on the caregiver, who becomes the "gatekeeper" to maintain contact with their child. It can be challenging for the grandparent to maintain parent-child contact because of the hardships they endure as primary caregivers, which may cause them to experience strain. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive phenomenological study was to determine the lived experiences of grandparents who serve as primary caregivers while attempting to maintain contact (i.e., visitation, phone calls, and written correspondence) between their grandchildren and the children's incarcerated parents. This research used the role strain theory to explore the grandparents' lived experiences as they attempt to maintain contact between the child and incarcerated parent. Purposeful sampling and snowball sampling were used to recruit 11 grandparents who were primary caregivers for children of incarcerated parents. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi’s method to determine emergent themes. The results revealed grandparent caregivers were adamant about maintaining contact between their grandchild and incarcerated parent, regardless of the parents' criminal behavior, and at times irrespective of the financial cost. Increased knowledge about grandparent caregivers' experiences can inform human service agencies to implement strategies to facilitate and sustain contact between families and their incarcerated family members.

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