Kennedy Stephanie C, Mennicke Annelise M, Allen Chelsea
Institute for Justice Research and Development, College of Social Work, Florida State University, 2010 Levy Ave, Suite 3400, Tallahassee, FL, 32310, USA.
School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA.
Health Justice. 2020 Jun 5;8(1):12. doi: 10.1186/s40352-020-00109-3.
Little is known about how incarcerated mothers make meaning of their parenting role and relationship with their children prior to incarceration and during custody. The aims of this project were to explore the experiences of mothering prior to incarceration and during custody using the Gendered Pathways Perspective and to examine how mothering intersects with incarcerated women's health and health outcomes to facilitate prevention and intervention strategies. This secondary data analysis used qualitative methods and grounded theory to identify themes related to mothering from 41 incarcerated mothers. Analyses were conducted by two independent coders, each of whom interviewed women as part of the primary study.
Identified themes highlight how mothers sacrificed their own health and wellness in order to parent their children, sometimes foregoing substance use disorder treatment because they had no childcare options. Additionally, incarcerated mothers described the psychological distress of family separation and asked for additional parenting programs to increase mother-child connection. Finally, mothers suggested that capitalizing on the mothering role might be a potent mechanism for change, especially as related to substance use disorder treatment.
Research on incarcerated parents often focuses on their children, which obscures incarcerated mothers' needs related to health and wellness. The prison environment offers few opportunities to foster mother-child connection; most mothers never receive even one visit from their children. Incarcerated mothers contextually framed crime as protecting and providing for children and identified community-based and in-prison service gaps. Recommendations include infusing mothering and caretaking responsibilities into the sentencing process and exploring the intersection of race, gender, class, and mothering status on criminalized behavior. Additionally, there is an urgent need to expand the availability of community-based and in-prison programs that allow women to address health concerns while mothering their children.
对于被监禁的母亲在入狱前以及被监禁期间如何理解自己的育儿角色以及与子女的关系，我们知之甚少。本项目的目的是运用性别化途径视角探讨入狱前及被监禁期间的育儿经历，并研究育儿如何与被监禁女性的健康及健康结果相互影响，以促进预防和干预策略的制定。这项二次数据分析采用定性方法和扎根理论，从41名被监禁母亲中识别与育儿相关的主题。分析由两名独立编码员进行，他们各自在主要研究中对这些女性进行了访谈。
确定的主题突出了母亲们如何为了养育子女而牺牲自己的健康和幸福，有时因没有育儿选择而放弃物质使用障碍治疗。此外，被监禁的母亲描述了家庭分离带来的心理困扰，并要求增加育儿项目以增强母婴联系。最后，母亲们表示利用育儿角色可能是一种有力的改变机制，特别是与物质使用障碍治疗相关的方面。
对被监禁父母的研究通常侧重于他们的子女，但这掩盖了被监禁母亲在健康和幸福方面的需求。监狱环境几乎没有提供促进母婴联系的机会；大多数母亲甚至从未收到过子女的一次探视。被监禁的母亲从背景角度将犯罪描述为保护和供养子女，并指出了基于社区和监狱内的服务差距。建议包括将育儿和照顾责任纳入量刑过程，并探讨种族、性别、阶级和育儿状况对犯罪行为的交叉影响。此外，迫切需要扩大基于社区和监狱内项目的可及性，使女性在养育子女的同时能够解决健康问题。
