Chui Wing Hong
Department of Applied Social Sciences, City University of Hong KongHong Kong, China; Institute of Advanced Study, Durham UniversityDurham, UK.
Front Psychol. 2016 Jun 14;7:881. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00881. eCollection 2016.
The myriad of negative effects brought about by the incarceration of a family member have consistently been demonstrated in research. However, previous works have tended to focus on the perspectives of family members separately, rather than exploring the dynamic relationships within the family as an entire unit. Moreover, such research is still limited in the Chinese cultural context. Thus, the current study aimed to examine the applicability of the Family Process Theory on a small sample of Chinese fathers who were imprisoned and have returned to their communities, conceptualizing the challenges faced by their families under the theoretical elements of rules of transformation, rituals, ambiguous loss, and boundary ambiguity. A total of 17 participants were recruited through the assistance of service organizations, and data were collected via semi-structured interviews. As congruent with the theory, inmates' families were found to come across problems particularly in the transitioning phase and establishment of new rituals, while ambiguity surrounding the incarceration and the blurred role of the father led to problems with fatherhood identity both during and after the incarceration. Recommendations are made, in line with these findings and the suggestions of ex-prisoners, for services to have more of a focus on preserving the integrity of inmates' families. Given the right circumstances, families can even serve as a motivator for incarcerated fathers to improve themselves and mature, leveraging the important supportive role of the family and the fear of again being separated from one's family as effective deterrents to recidivism.
家庭成员入狱所带来的种种负面影响在研究中一直得到证实。然而，以往的研究往往分别关注家庭成员的视角，而非将家庭作为一个整体来探究其内部的动态关系。此外，此类研究在中国文化背景下仍然有限。因此，本研究旨在考察家庭过程理论在中国一小部分曾入狱并已回归社区的父亲样本中的适用性，从转变规则、仪式、模糊丧失和边界模糊等理论要素的角度来概念化他们家庭所面临的挑战。通过服务机构的协助共招募了17名参与者，并通过半结构化访谈收集数据。与该理论相符的是，研究发现囚犯家庭尤其在过渡阶段和新仪式的建立过程中会遇到问题，而入狱事件的模糊性以及父亲角色的模糊导致在入狱期间和出狱后父亲身份认同方面出现问题。根据这些研究结果以及出狱者的建议，提出了相关建议，即服务应更多地关注维护囚犯家庭的完整性。在适当的情况下，家庭甚至可以成为促使入狱父亲自我提升和成熟的动力，利用家庭的重要支持作用以及对再次与家人分离的恐惧作为防止累犯的有效威慑。
