Children with Incarcerated Parents
The U.S. incarcerates more people than any country in the world, and most incarcerated individuals are parents of minor children. Children of incarcerated parents are at risk for developing negative outcomes in adolescence and adulthood, including substance abuse, externalizing problems, cognitive delays, school failure, truancy, criminal activity, and persistent internalizing problems
READ MORE
Julie Poehlmann-Tynan, PhD, is the Dorothy A. O’Brien Professor of Human Ecology and a professor in the human development and family studies department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty and the Center for Healthy Minds.
Through numerous publications and outreach efforts during the past 15 years, she has brought the attention of child development and family studies communities to the issue of incarcerated parents and their children. Her research with children of incarcerated parents has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Poehlmann-Tynan has served as an advisor to Sesame Street to help develop and evaluate their Emmy-nominated initiative for young children with incarcerated parents and their families called Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration.
She has published more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and is the editor of two monographs and a handbook focusing on children with incarcerated parents.
Wildeman, C. J., Haskins, A. R., & Poehlmann-Tynan, J. (2018). When parents are incarcerated: interdisciplinary research and interventions to support children. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Poehlmann-Tynan, J. (2015). Children’s Contact with Incarcerated Parents: Summary and Recommendations. SpringerBriefs in Psychology Children’s Contact with Incarcerated Parents.
For a complete listing of past and current publications click here.
Dr. Poehlmann-Tynan is currently serving as an advisor to Sesame Street on their Emmy-nominated initiative for children with incarcerated parents. She has served as a psychology supervisor in the Waisman Center’s Developmental Disabilities Clinic and teaches a service learning course in conjunction with campus and community early childhood education centers. Dr. Poehlmann-Tynan has consulted with Wisconsin Public Television on an outreach effort for families struggling with methamphetamine addiction and worked with Madison Area Urban Ministry to evaluate their mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents.
Dr. Poehlmann-Tynan teaches HDFS 663: Developmental and Family Assessment, a service-learning class for advanced undergraduates and offers research experiences through internship and HDFS 592: Children with Incarcerated Parents. She also teaches several graduate seminars, including HDFS 760: Infancy and the Family and HDFS 855: Attachment Theory and Research Across the Lifespan.