A Conceptual Framework for Child Well-Being in the Context of Maternal Incarceration: A Meta-Narrative Synthesis

No single conceptual framework currently captures the overall well-being of children experiencing maternal incarceration. To address this gap, we examined whether an existing, population-based child well-being framework, developed by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth’s (ARACY), is able to account for factors known to influence the well-being of children in the context of maternal incarceration. Using a meta-narrative method, our synthesis of 97 documents revealed that the domains in the ARACY framework account for the overall well-being of children experiencing maternal incarceration; contextual factors specific to these children were not well represented. These factors include those that shape what well-being looks like for children experiencing maternal incarceration, those that are common to these children but not directly related to maternal incarceration, and those directly related to maternal incarceration itself. Therefore, while population-based frameworks like ARACY’s can serve as a useful tool to improve understanding of the well-being outcomes of children experiencing maternal incarceration, such frameworks should not be used for policy and practice translation without consideration of these unique contextual factors. Failure to do so may lead to inadequate support targets and indicators that poorly measure meaningful change for this population. Based on our findings, we suggest policy and practice efforts prioritise understanding well-being from different cultural perspectives, address pre-existing disadvantage, and implement multisystemic interventions tailored to individual children’s needs. Future research should develop robust prevention and intervention strategies that account for implementation challenges while deepening the theoretical and empirical understanding of these children’s unique well-being needs.