Picture books for young children of incarcerated parents: Through the lens of bibliotherapy

Abstract

AbstractResearch suggests that bibliotherapy can help children cope with life's challenges through age‐appropriate reading and storytelling. Bibliotherapy has been employed to assist children in dealing with grief, divorce, adoption and other stressors. However, limited studies have investigated how this approach can support young children with incarcerated parents. Utilizing bibliotherapy as a framework, this study conducts a thematic analysis of children's picture books published between 1977 and 2014, featuring children of incarcerated parents as main characters to better understand the challenges they face. The study aims to explore the challenges depicted among child characters in picture books addressing parental incarceration for a young reading audience over almost 50 years. Our findings reveal that child characters grapple with various emotional, psychological and social challenges related to the sudden separation from their loved ones. We discuss the implications of each finding in greater detail.