This is a qualitative research project conducted on children in institutional care who have incarcerated parent(s) in China with the purpose of exploring the subjective living experiences and self-identity of these children. A homogeneous sample of seventeen children in institutional care who have incarcerated parents, a sample of seven institutional staff, three school teachers, and four family members who were these children’s previous caregivers, were included according to purposive sampling procedures. This study employed narrative analysis as the method used to analyze the data collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews. / With the assumption that identity formation is a process of social construction, the study proposes a theoretical framework consisting of Chinese social and cultural contexts, the family, the societal context, and the children’s subjective experience and identity. This comes after a comprehensive review of the literature on empirical services, polices, and research on children with incarnated parents, theories concerning identity and identity development, and the dominant ideologies about incarceration in the Chinese context. / This study finds that parental incarceration eventually changes these children’s lives so that they suffer helplessness, abandonment and uncertainty. Grateful feelings emerge when they enter a charitable institution that provides them with a relatively stable and secure living environment. There children are referred to or refer to themselves as “children of the institution”. This public label covers their status as inferior, as service recipients of an institution, and the misunderstood status of “orphan. These children develop paradoxical feelings towards these different labels and their self-identity is actually incarcerated in the parent-child relationship along with the incarcerated parents. The internalized ignominy of being children of incarcerated parents further enhances their feeling of inferiority as service recipients of an institution. / To understand the self-identity of these institutionally reared children with incarcerated parents (CIP), as well as its formation process in the Chinese socio-cultural context, the study develops a model that includes elements such as the Chinese moral censure of criminals, familial belief, and the individual-familial responsibility and the concept of “Bao”. These three ideas not only directly impact these children’s self-identity, but also comprise the basis for discourses in the three sub-contexts in which these children derive their living experiences and develop their self-identities. These socio-cultural beliefs are generally held by actors in various situations, and cultural messages are conveyed to these children by those actors through interaction with the children, and these cultural messages shaped the children’s’ subjective experiences and identities. / Based on the findings of this research, the researcher proposes suggestions for social works services for children with incarcerated parents from both micro and macro perspectives, and suggests directions for future research. / 置身中國社會文化語境、以建構主義為理論嚮導，本是一項探索機構照料的服刑人員子女的主觀生活經驗和身份認同及其形成過程為目敘事研究。通對以往服刑人員子女相關務與研究、身份認同理論以及中國社會於"服刑"的敘說進行較為全面回顧與梳理，研究者提出一個囊括中國文化、家庭、社會語境、機構環境及服刑人員子女主觀經驗的互動過程框架用以指導研究。該研究採用目的抽樣，從中國大陸某專門資助、代養服刑人員未成年子女的民間慈善機構選取符合條件的17名服刑人員子女 、7名機構工作人員 、3名學校老師和4名兒童親屬。 通過半結構化的深入訪談收集資料，使用 Nvivo 軟件對訪談資料進行細緻編碼，最後總結顯著主題并撰寫報告。 / 該研究發現，父母服刑給其子女帶來諸多負面後果。被訪兒童在父母服刑后都經歷生活困難、無助與被拋棄，由此產不安全感。入住該機構，他們遇上相對穩定全的生活，也自賦或被予一個“公共身份” —— 機構的孩子。對這一身份他們有著複雜而糾結的情感，一方面這身份昭示其作為服務受助者低人一等并隱含被誤解為“孤兒”的尷尬；另一方面，這公共身份也像個保護傘，使其"服刑人員子女”這一身份在某種程度上得以掩蓋。他們都強烈感知并內化作為服刑子女的羞恥以及作為服務受助者的低人一等。從此意義而言，他們自我被禁錮其中。 / 文章最後得出包含社會化因素、主流言論、家庭、機構以及服刑人員子女等因素的多方互動模型用以呈現和解釋他們主觀生活經驗與自我身份認同及其形成過程。中國社會三個主要觀點 —— 對罪犯的道德譴責、家庭主義和個人、家庭主義和個人 -家庭負責的福利理念、報 —— 相互作用，共同造就社會主流論述對服刑人員子女的歧視、 家庭成員的羞恥感以及機構中對於恩回報期待；進而，服刑人子女通過與這三個系統中的人進行互動，也感知和內化對他們負面看法，形塑主觀經驗和身份認同。 / 基於這些發現，本文在最後就服刑人員子女社會服務改善提出建議，認為微觀層面，機構應該改變服務理念；而在宏觀層面，政府應該介入，且整個社會文化的導向也應該有所調整。本文最后指出未來研究的可能方向。 / Xia, Lili. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-296). / Abstracts and appendixes also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 20, December, 2016). / Xia, Lili. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.