Life course theory supports strengthening incarcerated mothers' parenting skills and parent-child relationships to help both inmate mothers and their children. Prison parenting programs address this need. This study evaluates the efficacy of the parenting program at a Southern correctional institution for women in changing inmate mothers' parenting knowledge and skills. A pretest-posttest nonequivalent comparison group quasi-experimental design was used to assess short-term change in knowledge after 12-week parent education courses. Paired sample t tests of parenting class participants' (n = 64) Time 1 and Time 2 scores on two parenting inventories suggest significant positive change likely resulting from the parent education program. No significant change was indicated in a comparison group (n = 26) of inmate mothers.
Children with incarcerated mothers have been identified as one of the most vulnerable and at risk populations in the United States. They are particularly vulnerable to poor outcomes as their mother's incarceration exacerbates the level of risk often acknowledged for all children of incarcerated parents. Maternal incarceration is a unique and intensifying risk factor as mothers are more likely than fathers to be children's primary parent and more likely to be economically disadvantaged before, during, and after incarceration. When fathers are incarcerated, children usually remain with their mothers. When mothers are incarcerated, children are separated from their mother and child‐rearing responsibilities are transferred to an alternative parent, most often a grandmother. Impacts of maternal incarceration include attachment disruption, family structure disruption and reorganization, caregiver stress, and financial strain. Recent research finds impacts from maternal incarceration – such as a multigenerational crime and incarceration effect, damaged mother–child attachment, mental health issues, diminished school performance, and delinquent behavior – to be more powerful than the impacts of paternal incarceration.
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