Coping Through Constraint: Stress Appraisal and Emotional Regulation Among Parents in Jail

Parental incarceration is a common yet disruptive feature of the U.S. criminal legal system, with well-documented consequences for families. Less is known, however, about how incarcerated parents themselves cope with the psychological and relational challenges of parenting from jail. Guided by the transactional model of stress and coping, this study uses reflexive thematic analysis to examine how parents appraise parenting-related stressors and mobilize coping strategies under conditions of institutional constraint. Semi-structured interviews with 41 incarcerated parents in a Mid-Atlantic urban county jail show that parents overwhelmingly appraised incarceration as a profound threat to their parental identity. Parents responded by relying on emotion-oriented coping strategies and longer-term reappraisal processes that allowed them to endure separation and uncertainty while identity threat remained unresolved. Findings show that coping is a contextually embedded process shaped by institutional constraint rather than individual deficiency. Implications aimed at supporting incarcerated parents’ psychological well-being are discussed.