The relationship between motherhood and re-incarceration

Using matched administrative records from the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, this paper finds that mothers' rates of re-incarceration are higher than those of women without children. It is also found that incarcerated mothers whose children have been in foster care have a higher re-incarceration rate than do women without children. The re-incarceration rate is particularly higher among mothers whose children were placed in foster care at the time of their first incarceration and mothers who had children in foster care but lost their custody before their first incarceration. These findings are more pronounced among white women with records of drug-related offenses or drug addiction than among their African-American counterparts.     

A Therapist’s Mandate?: Integrating an Ethics of Care into Custody Law by Recognising and Responding to Post‐separation Parental Loss of Connection with Children

In 1999 Smart and Neale published their seminal book Family Fragments, arguing for the replacement of the ethics of justice that currently informs custody law and practice with an ethics of care. Recognising loss is one of four principles they identify as being key to care‐based processes for managing post‐separation parenting arrangements. Here they had in mind the non‐resident fathers in their study, who were often anxious, angry, and resentful about their diminished fatherhood. Yet gender‐neutral custody laws and the greater prominence given to shared care across the West means that increasing numbers of separated mothers are also experiencing diminished connections to their children, either by becoming non‐resident parents or through shared care arrangements. Research into post‐separation fathers’ and mothers’ experiences of loss and grief in relation to their children is sparse and largely consists of small‐scale qualitative studies focusing either on fathers or mothers. Nonetheless, these studies show that the grief talk of post‐separated parents is strikingly similar, except that mothers who become non‐resident parents commonly talk about a sense of stigma and shame, while fathers are more likely than mothers to resort to the language of anger and rights. Despite Smart and Neale's call roughly 20 years ago, custody law systems across the West continue to neglect parents’ need for recognition and support. This paper seeks to rectify this social neglect through describing a dual program of therapeutically informed interventions with separated mothers and fathers. This is designed to recognise and respond to parental loss and grief experiences, whilst simultaneously fostering personal self‐reflexivity and transformation. The latter is no easy task but is frequently an essential basis for workable co‐parenting post‐separation.     

Mothers living apart from their children

Following Darley's analysis of the implications for women of ascribed (e.g., motherhood) vs. achieved (e.g., career) roles, this study examined stress and coping in four areas. Seventeen women who lived apart from their children (noncustody) and fourteen women who lived with their children (custody) were interviewed. The stressfulness of the noncustody situation appeared in negative evaluations of women who do not have custody, in the difficulties of dealing with ex-husbands over custody, in the lack of support from family and sometimes friends, and in the lack of hopes for the future. Yet, mothers who lived apart from their children were as “fit” as mothers who lived with their children. Child custody appeared to be a fluid issue regardless of the current custody situation for both custody and noncustody mothers.     

Ambivalent subjectivities: experiences of mothers with disabilities in Russia

Women with disabilities are still rarely imagined in the role of a mother. Narratives about motherhood that promote traditional gender roles and the primary role of motherhood in women’s lives (pronatalism) in countries like Russia emphasize the value of non-disabled and heteronormative bodies and minds. The lived experiences and the lived citizenship of mothers with disabilities disrupt societal assumptions about motherhood. However, the structural environment of pronatalism inevitably influences the ways in which mothers with disabilities understand motherhood and construct their sense of selves (subjectivities). Drawing on the framework of citizenship and the feminist disability studies literature, this article analyzes how the personal and the political are intertwined. The analysis is based on empirical data obtained from qualitative interviews with 14 mothers with disabilities in a provincial city of Russia.     

“Behind every woman in prison is a man”: Incarcerated Women’s Perceptions of How We Can Better Help Them in the Context of Interpersonal Victimization

ABSTRACT

Although women’s rates of incarceration have increased dramatically, the criminal justice system does not meet women’s unique needs. This article used qualitative methods to describe the responses of 113 incarcerated women to the following question: How can we better help women like you? Analyses focused on women’s experiences of victimization and highlighted how to address trauma in prison reform and abolition efforts. Women suggested how victimization fueled their criminal offending behavior, detailed re-victimization in the prison milieu, and identified program gaps during custody and after release. Opportunities for immediate action include policy advocacy, mitigation, and shifting to a trauma-informed correctional approach.     

Impact of Adult Sons’ Incarceration on African American Mothers’ Psychological Distress

This longitudinal study examines the effect of sons’ incarceration on their mothers’ psychological distress. Interviews were conducted over the life course with a community cohort of African American mothers who had children in first grade in 1966 – 1967 when the study began (N =615). Thirty years later, their sons had significant rates of incarceration (22.4%). Structural equation modeling showed that the more recent the incarceration, the greater the mothers’ psychological distress, even controlling for earlier socioeconomic status and psychological well‐being. Financial difficulties and greater burden of grandparenting are associated with having a son incarcerated and they mediate the relationship between the incarceration and a mother’s psychological distress. Results suggest that incarceration has important effects on family members’ well‐being.     

Work of Full‐Time Mothers: Putting Voice to the Relational Theory of Working

The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore the work experience of middle‐class, Korean full‐time mothers in their 50s. Interviews, observations, and photographs were collected from 11 Korean full‐time mothers to understand their work and career experiences. The data were analyzed by a case study qualitative method of inquiry. The themes that emerged from the data were paths to becoming full‐time mothers, multiple working roles from relationships, dialectical characteristics of work, meaning of full‐time mothering, and regrets and internalized biases for full‐time motherhood. The findings illustrate how full‐time mothers experience a sense of meaning and mattering from their work; how relationships and work are intertwined in their lives; and how gender, social class, and culture influence the work and relationships of full‐time mothers. Implications for counselors and researchers are discussed.     

Collateral Damage: The Lived Experiences of Divorced Mothers Without Custody

This qualitative study utilizing narrative analysis and grounded theory examines the history and experiences of 14 Canadian women who have lost custody of their children within a legal divorce process. Each woman's storied experience focused on themes of attachment and loss associated with involuntary child absence, legal abuse within the adversarial system, and judgment based on nonconformity to a motherhood ideal; physical violence and emotional abuse in the family system; access denial and parental alienation; stigma and lack of support services; and serious financial losses. Women's perceptions of their children's needs in the divorce process, mothers' responsibilities in relation to those needs, and the responsibility of social institutions to support mothers as parents were also examined. The study sought mothers' views about needed changes to the legal framework of child custody determination and other priorities. Implications for socio-legal policy are discussed, including a consideration of a rebuttable legal shared parental responsibility presumption as facilitating the most salutary postdivorce outcomes for women and children, as are guidelines for direct service provision.     

Work,Family, and Accounts of Mothers’ Lives Using Discourse to Navigate Intensive Mothering Ideals

Despite the dramatic increase in women’s employment since the 1970s, mothers’ decisions about work remain closely scrutinized. The intensive mothering ethos in which “good” mothers are highly involved in the minutiae of their children’s lives, continues to be the prevailing parenting paradigm in the United States. This article asks: How do women use discourse to navigate the demands of intensive motherhood? First, this article reviews literature on ideologies of intensive mothering. The article then considers research on how accounts are used to navigate the moral dilemmas surrounding women’s work and motherhood. This article provides us with a better understanding of how traditional gender divides remain culturally relevant, how people use discourse to expand cultural schemas to fit their own social location, and how the process of expanding the framework of a schema through this negotiation process can allow traditional gender schemas to remain salient even while different actions are incorporated.     

Walking an Emotional Tightrope: Managing Emotions in a Women's Prison

Until recently, the emotional experiences of women in prison have been overlooked by symbolic interactionists and social scientists. Similarly, research relevant to the sociology of emotions has not been explored in the social context of a correctional institution for women. The purpose of this study is to investigate emotional experiences from the unique perspective of incarcerated women. This research examines how women in prison perceive and manage their emotional lives while confined and asks whether their chosen strategies have an impact on their interactions and thus affect the institutional environment. Data were collected through in‐depth interviews with thirty‐five women incarcerated in a correctional institution located in the midwestern United States. Using a semistructured interview schedule, respondents were asked about a range of topics, one of which involved their emotional lives while incarcerated. Findings indicate these women define their emotional experiences as being simultaneously provocative and constrained. Respondents suggest that their emotional resources are individually, contextually, and culturally grounded. They discuss employing various strategies to manage their emotional lives while incarcerated, including diversions, spiritual pursuits, blocking exercises, self‐reflection, and humor. The majority of the techniques employed to control emotions are intrapersonal. Respondents describe personal efforts designed to manage their emotional experiences rather than share their feelings with others.     

Noncustodial Mothers Following Divorce

Historically women have been responsible for pro- viding the primary care of their children. This notion of responsi- bility for the care and well-being of children is central to the definition of motherhood. When mothers relinquish custody of their children prior to their 18th birthday, they elicit suspicions of deviance and nonnormality. There are an estimated 500,000 to 1,200,000 noncustodial mothers in the United States, with approxi- mately 75% being voluntary relinquishers. This chapter identifies, through a review of the social science literature on maternal noncustody and examination of a specific study, the broad range of reasons for becoming a noncustodial mother, as well as provides a clearer picture of the noncustodial mother-child relationship pursuant to relinquishment. An overall theme from the literature was a general societal disapproval regarding maternal custody relinquishment, which in the study described, negatively affected respondents self- perceptions. This study describes the social situation of women who voluntarily gave up custody of one or more biological children. Retrospective data identifying the factors influencing custody relinquishment and the events leading up to giving up custody are examined. Relationships between noncustodial mothers and their children are ex-plored pursuant to relinquishment, as well as the extent to which mothers regretted giving up their children. A sample of 130 noncustodial mothers responded to a 137-item life history questionnaire and three clinical assessment scales. One- hundred-and-two of the participants engaged in two- to five-hour interviews. Findings revealed that approximately 86% of the respon- dents cited multiple reasons for custody relinquishment. Financial considerations, emotional problems, threats of legal custody fights, and being in a destructive relationship with mate emerged as the most frequently reported reasons for giving up one’s children. The reasons for relinquishment as well as how the decision was handled with children had the greatest impact on the mother-child relation- ship. Almost 97% of the mothers actively maintained relationships with children following relinquishment. Seventy percent of those sampled were satisfied with their decision to relinquish in retrospect. Finally, recommendations for policy and practice were discussed. Agency and legal policies and procedures should reflect a sensitivity to conditions under which most mothers relinquish their minor chil- dren, especially a supportive national family policy. The provision of a child or family allowance, compulsory court-based mediation, and a more uniform state-to-state support enforcement are recom- mended. Practitioners need to employ contextually-specific interac- tions for noncustodial mothers and their families, as high anxiety may characterize the emotions of this variable type of single parent. Professionals interacting with potential noncustodial mothers should provide for them to make a more informed and less pressured deci- sion regarding relinquishment.     

Parenting from Prison

ABSTRACT

The impact of parental incarceration on minor children has been well documented. Children with at least one parent in prison are at greater risk to suffer from anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, anger, and attention deficiencies. In comparison to the research on children, less emphasis has been placed on how mothers are affected when they are incarcerated away from their children. The current research focus is how children's visitation programs and parenting classes can improve the relationships between incarcerated women and their children. Female prisoners participating in a specialized children's visitation program were interviewed to gain their perceptions of their relationships with their children and how the program had affected this bond. A comparison group of women not in the program were also questioned about their relationships with their children. The authors suggest that incarcerated mothers respond positively to institutional efforts to keep them in touch with their children.     

Paternal incarceration and the family: Fifteen years in review

Since the turn of the 21st Century, research has highlighted the use of the American criminal justice system as a forager of young, low‐income, low‐educated, men of color, but less is known about how these men exist within such realities and construct meaningful relationships in their families. Research in the early 2000s has focused on how paternal incarceration affects these men, their partners, and their children. However, there is limited research about how these men understand fatherhood and the mechanisms for how paternal incarceration disrupts relationships and exacerbates inequality in the larger family system. Highlighting the consequences to family and child well‐being, the incarceration literature is beginning to focus on the variational and complicated experiences that families cope with when a father is incarcerated. This paper reviews the literature since the early 2000s, tracing what is known about incarcerated fathers and consequences for their children and families. In doing so, this paper discusses both the evolution of the literature and how more research about family processes is needed to understand the dynamic experiences of families and caregivers who manage periods of confinement during the age of mass incarceration in America.     

“Doing Fear”: The Influence of Hetero‐femininity on (Trans)women's Fears of Victimization

Through 26 in‐depth interviews with male‐to‐female transsexuals (transwomen), this study examines transwomen's perceptions of safety, pre‐ and post‐transition. The majority reported higher levels of fear and believed they would be unable to fight off an attacker post‐transition even though most were large statured and were socialized as males. Exposure to heterosexual practices and to cultural messages depicting women as physically weak and sexually vulnerable, and transwomen's embodiment of hetero‐femininity play a central role in increasing their fears. Their experiences as women are powerful enough to override decades of prior male experiences and expose the socially constructed nature of fear and bodily agency.     

Marriage and the Motherhood Wage Penalty Among African Americans,Hispanics, and Whites

This study draws on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 5,929) to analyze the moderating effects of race and marriage on the motherhood wage penalty. Fixed‐effects models reveal that for Hispanic women, motherhood is not associated with a wage penalty. For African Americans, only married mothers with more than 2 children pay a wage penalty. For Whites, all married mothers pay a wage penalty, as do all never‐married mothers and divorced mothers with 1 or 2 children. These findings imply that racial differences in the motherhood wage penalty persist even for women with similar marital statuses, and they suggest that patterns of racial stratification shape women’s family experiences and labor market outcomes.     

Motherhood and “Moral Career”: Discourses of Good Motherhood Among Southeast Asian Immigrant Women in Australia

In this paper, I examine the lived experience of motherhood among Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese immigrant women in Australia. The women in this study felt a profound change through the process of becoming a mother; they experience the “transformation of self.” The results reveal several discourses of good motherhood. Becoming a mother was experienced as a moral transformation of self and women were urged to perform their moral career. The representation of mothers as the “keepers of morality” is prominent. Women's moral career is influenced by an ethic of care and responsibility for others, particularly their children. The paradoxical discourse of motherhood is profound in the women's narratives of their lived experiences of motherhood. It is clear that motherhood is not an easy task. When this is combined with difficulties resulting from migration, motherhood becomes double burdens. Lack of sufficient English, financial difficulties and support network in a homeland make the task of good motherhood difficult to achieve. Social and health care services need to take women's experiences into account if sensitive care for immigrant women is to be achieved.     

Young Mother (in the) Hood: Gang Girls' Negotiation of New Identities

This article examines the experiences of young women in street gangs who become mothers. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 65 young women in the San Francisco, CA, Bay Area, we examine their narratives about the transition to motherhood. In particular, we focus on the ways these young women negotiate femininities and attempt to reconcile their identities as young mothers and gang girls-both stigmatized identities. For many of the young women, motherhood entails a retreat from the street and a renewed emphasis on time spent in the home. While many receive (financial and childcare) support from their families, this also often means a diminution of the autonomy they experienced while more heavily involved in the gang. Issues of respect and respectability remain important for the young women, but the dimensions on which these are based change.     

Paternal Incarceration and Father–Child Contact in Fragile Families

High rates of incarceration in the United States have motivated a broad examination of the effects of parental incarceration on child well‐being. Although a growing literature documents challenges facing the children of incarcerated men, most incarcerated fathers lived apart from their children before their arrest, raising questions of whether they were sufficiently involved with their families for their incarceration to affect their children. The author used the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,071) to examine father–child contact among incarcerated fathers and found that most incarcerated fathers maintained a degree of contact with their children through either coresidence or visitation. Moreover, the results revealed robust reductions in both father–child coresidence and visitation when fathers are incarcerated—between 18% and 20% for coresidence and 30% to 50% for the probability of visitation. The findings suggest that these reductions are driven by both incapacitation while incarcerated and union dissolution upon release.     

Palestinian-Israeli single mothers accord motherhood a new meaning ‘I would like to teach my children a new way of life … I'm responsible for them now’

Over the last three decades, Palestinian society in Israel has undergone numerous changes, reflected in the rising numbers of families headed by single mothers. This article is based on a study conducted between 2007 and 2011 among 24 divorced, separated, and widowed Palestinian single mothers in Israel. I analyze this emerging family configuration, focusing on these women’s experiences as mothers and on how they accord new meaning to motherhood. My analysis will deal with the diverse ways these women ‘do motherhood’ and negotiate with different familial players. It will extend beyond the discourse on motherhood to shed light on the current changes in power and gender relations taking place in Palestinian-Israeli society.