ABSTRACT
This chapter brings together four different research projects, including a pan European study, relating to imprisoned parents and their children based in England and Wales, in which both authors were involved. It explores stories of disclosure and non-disclosure and will consider the impact of those stories and how and if they help or impede families' ability to cope with and make sense of parental imprisonment. The chapter draws on the assumption that 'it is through narrativity that people come to know understand and make sense of the social world'. It analyses the original transcripts of each study, choosing those that made reference to the issue of disclosure. Adopting a narrative approach soughts to combine and compare the qualitative studies. Data were originally pooled in narrative form under the heading of 'disclosure' or 'non-disclosure'. The narratives were then examines to identify key themes relating to disclosure.
