Kaitlyn PritzlGraduate Studentshe/her/hers

I am a human ecologist interested in child and family well-being in the context of parental incarceration, focusing on the ways that incarcerated parents and children stay connected, and how facilities can support family connections. I assist in facilitating child-friendly visits at the Dane County jail, providing incarcerated parents and children of all ages an opportunity to build and maintain their relationship through play, creativity, and lots of hugs and silly pictures. As an awardee of graduate research fellowships from the Institute for Research on Poverty and the National Institute of Justice, I am conducting a study to understand how families experience child-friendly visits and how these visits facilitate positive connections between children and their incarcerated parents. I am also a graduate research assistant on the Healthy Brain and Child Development Study, the largest long-term study of early brain and child development in the United States.

I received my bachelor’s degree in psychology and Human Development & Family Studies with a minor in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2017. During my time as an undergraduate student, in addition to working as a research assistant studying parental incarceration in the Poehlmann Research Lab, I volunteered with the Rape Crisis Center and listened to survivors share how trauma impacted their daily lives. After graduation, I learned the importance of foundational developmental skills by working with young children who have autism; I provided play-based therapy to enhance children’s social and communicative skills before starting kindergarten. These experiences motivated me to return to graduate school to study stress and development, with the goal of understanding resilience in children and families. I received my master’s degree in 2022 and am currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison studying Human Development & Family Studies.

Selected Publications

Kerr, M. L., Charles, P., Pritzl, K., Jensen, S., Anandha Krishnan, C., Ylizaliturri, V., & Poehlmann, J. (2024). Enhancing remote parent-child video visits during parental incarceration using IMMERSIVE, a brief mindful relational savoring intervention. Mindfulness, 15, 3080-3094. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02415-5

Muentner, L., Pritzl, K., Shlafer, R., & Poehlmann, J. (2023). Using a brief multimedia educational intervention to strengthen young children’s feelings while visiting jailed parents. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32, 3786-3799. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02656-3

Jensen, S., Pritzl, K., Charles, P., Kerr, M., & Poehlmann, J. (2023). Improving communication access for children with incarcerated parents. Contexts, 22(1), 76-77. https://doi.org/10.1177/15365042221142847

Pritzl, K., Milavetz, Z., Cuthrell, H., Muentner, L., & Poehlmann-Tynan, J. (2022). Young Children’s Contact with their Parents in Jail and Child Behavior Problems. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 61(2), 88-105. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2021.2018381

Poehlmann-Tynan, J., & Pritzl, K. (2019). Parent-child visits when parents are incarcerated in prison or jail. In J. M. Eddy & J. Poehlmann-Tynan (Eds.), Handbook on children with incarcerated parents: Research, policy, and practice (pp. 131-147). Springer Nature Switzerland AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16707-3_10

Awards and Recognition

• Child and Family Caucus Award, American Psychological Association, 2025
• Graduate Research Dissertation Fellowship, National Institute of Justice, 2024
• Honorable Mention for the Dissertation Award, Society for Research in Child Development, 2024
• Graduate Research Award, Institute for Research on Poverty, 2023
• SummerTime Academic Research Award, School of Human Ecology, 2021
• University Fellowship, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2020