Managing ‘Spoiled Identities’: Parents’ Experiences of Compulsory Parenting Support Programmes

Abstract

While recent years have seen a rapid growth of research exploring the usefulness of parenting support programmes, no empirical research to date has specifically explored experiences of compulsory parenting support. The present study examines the narrative accounts of 17 parents who, through a Parenting Order, were made to participate in such programmes. Findings suggest that the particular nature of court‐sanctioning, and the ‘spoiled identity’ it produces, shapes how parents subsequently experience their parenting support. It concludes that government rhetoric should not use findings from voluntary attendance to support extending the use of compulsory parenting support programmes.

Young people's perspectives of being parented in critical situations: teenage non‐offenders and desisters speak out

“…These findings have particular implications for parenting programmes. Firstly, they shed light on why parents in Holt's (2009a) study were so indignant about the parenting programmes they attended under a Parenting Order and disputed the assumption that they were ‘bad parents’; on the contrary, they claimed to know how to parent well and were critical of the ‘expert’ advice they received. The findings reported earlier suggest that the skills that parents have may elude them in critical situations and that general parenting styles are not necessarily a reliable indicator of how parents will respond to their offspring at critical points.…”

“…It also complements studies in this area which have focused solely on the experiences of parents. Holt (2009a), for example, explored parents' involuntary participation in parenting programmes through Parenting Orders, in which their complex reactions to ‘expert’ intervention (a finding, which is returned to later) were unravelled, but that study did not include interviews with young people.…”

The Experience of Prisoners’ Parents: A Meta‐Synthesis of Qualitative Studies

“…For example, the antisocial behavior of young people may be attributed to inadequate parenting, and specifically, the inability to control one's child (MacNeil, Church, Nelson-Gardell, & Young, 2015). Subsequently, parents, and especially mothers, have been subjected to parenting orders and other parenting programs intended to stop their adolescent children from offending (Holt, 2010).…”

The weight of my words: the role of confession and surveillance in parenting programmes

“…These families are characterised by there being no adult in the family working, children not being in school and family members being involved in crime and anti-social behaviour (Communities and Local Government 2012, p.1) It is important to note that while legislation and interventions are generally gender neutral using terms such as 'families' and 'parents' the majority of interventions are actually directed at mothers and not fathers. It is apparent from this research and previous work in the area of parenting and family interventions that although they may apply to parents in general, they are most predominantly used against mothers (Holt 2010;Nixon and Hunter 2009;Nixon et al 2006;Ghate and Ramella 2002). In England and Wales, biological mothers automatically assume parental responsibility from Section 2 of the Children Act 1989 (Lind and Hewitt 2009) and although since December 2003 unmarried fathers who jointly register the child's birth with the mother automatically gain parental responsibility, it still appears that mothers are generally the parent assumed to have parental responsibility (Donoghue 2011) and in the case of parenting orders, most likely to be the parent who receives the court summons.…”

“…Holt's study of parents given parenting orders from YOTs in southern England (Holt 2010; highlighted the resistance that parents would express, for example one parent, Bee expressed resistance in that she negotiated home visits and not the group work required. In this research study, parents conveyed to the researcher their tactics for expressing resistance which ranged from numerous and varied excuses for nonattendance, negotiating out of certain tasks, through to outright rejection of the intervention.…”