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This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of filial therapy on reducing the stress experienced by incarcerated parents; its ability to increase the acceptance level by those parents toward their children ; and to determine the effectiveness of filial therapy on improving the self concept of the children of incarcerated parents.

The number of children in the United States with an incarcerated parent continues to rise. Currently, more than 1.7 million children have at least one incarcerated parent. In addition, research has found that children with criminally involved parents are at a higher risk of also becoming offenders (Glaze & Maruschak, 2010). Research has shown that incarcerated parents' abilities to maintain communication with their children may decrease negative behaviors while incarcerated and may decrease the negative effects of being removed from their families. The current study utilizes secondary data to explore the types of communication incarcerated parents use in order to stay connected with their children. The goal is to understand gendered differences regarding how incarcerated mothers versus incarcerated fathers choose to communicate with their children, and to understand which forms of communication (letter writing, face to face visits, and phone calls) are utilized most often by incarcerated parents to maintain and strengthen the bonds with their children. Logistic Regressions identified that incarcerated mothers are more likely to have at least one visit, phone call, and will utilize more forms of communication in a month's time, with their children. These findings both support and contradict previous studies. Implications of the findings and further suggestions are discussed.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 26-29). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The purpose of this qualitative interview study is to examine the lives and experiences children of incarcerated parents from a theoretical perspective through an application of the social stress process. Previous research on children of incarcerated parents has neglected to add a theoretical component to their research, which is the intention of this research. The results will be organized around the theoretical domains of the stress process applied to findings from the analysis of eleven qualitative interviews of mothers and/or caregivers of youth(s) of an incarcerated parent. Guided by analytic induction, the themes that emerged from the transcripts were applied to the theoretical propositions of the social stress process: stressors, mediators, and manifestations. Stressors experienced by children of incarcerated parents include: the incarceration of a parent, financial difficulties, and residential instability. Stress mediators include: coping mechanisms and the importance of maintaining familial ties during parental incarceration. The manifestations or outcomes include: internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

U.S. incarceration rates have soared over the past three decades and the demographic characteristics of those who end up in prison are a reflection of the nation's structural inequality. Incarcerated fathers are a socially disadvantaged group and spending time in prison compounds already significant risk factors that these men experienced throughout their lives. In addition, it increases the risk that their children will suffer from the intergenerational transmission of social inequality. While studies indicate that maintaining contact between incarcerated fathers and their children has the potential to benefit them both and improve a variety of outcomes, there is limited research on the factors that impact incarcerated father-child contact. Based on the ecological model and the cumulative risk framework, this thesis attempts to help fill this gap in the current literature by examining whether an incarcerated father's cumulative risk factors impact the frequency of contact he has with his children. Using a nationally representative data set of men in state prisons and a negative binomial regression analysis, this study found that number of childhood risk experiences was a significant predictor of an incarcerated father's contact with his children. In addition, minority status moderated the relationship between childhood risk and frequency of visits, with an increased effect of risk on father-child contact for African American and Hispanic men. While the quadratic term of Risk² was not significant, disproving the hypothesis that there is a non-linear relationship between risk and contact, a visual representation of the distribution showed that contact between fathers and their children dropped substantially for men with the highest number of risk factors. This study provides valuable information about the relationship between the childhood experiences of incarcerated fathers and their subsequent social ties. The knowledge that childhood risk impacts frequency of father-child contact has the potential to inform interventions aimed at improving outcomes for these at-risk families. / Graduation date: 2013

In light of the phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States, black women have become the fastest growing incarcerated population in the U.S. Given the fact that more than 75% of incarcerated woman are the primary caregiver for at least one child under the age of 18 the growing incarceration of black women results in the separation of many black mothers from their children. This assault on black motherhood is part of a historically persistent practice of subjugation, control, and maintenance over black women’s reproduction and bodies starting from slavery. This report will not only map this repressive trajectory into the present, but it will also focus on examining black motherhood through the lens of mass incarceration. Furthermore, this report will not only attempt to situate the enduring practice of black women’s subjugation within larger discourses around racism, sexism, oppression, state control, domination, and power but also within an understanding of manifestations of embodied blackness. / text

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

When children face separation from their parents as a consequence of state action in the family courts, their best interests are the paramount consideration of the court and they have legal representation. Children who face separation from their mother as a consequence of sentencing proceedings in the criminal courts are neither represented nor acknowledged. The thesis analyses this differentiated treatment and explores its consequences for children, society and the state. Explanations for the differentiated treatment are tested with reference to existing literature and original empirical research. The impact on children of imprisoned mothers is investigated to determine whether or not they suffer harm. The parameters of the state duty of care towards children are explored, to see if children of defendant mothers fall outside of it, and the way sentencing judges construct and interpret their duty towards mothers and their children within the sentencing process is examined. This thesis establishes that without legal or moral justification, children of maternal defendants are treated without the concern given to children who face separation from their parents in the family courts. Children of defendant mothers suffer as a consequence of the 'secondary prisonisation', 'secondary stigmatisation' and 'confounding grief' which they experience, and the state has failed to uphold their rights under Articles 3, 12 and 20, and is in breach of its duty under Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. The guidance and mechanisms for considering their welfare exist but are not engaged with by the sentencing courts, local authorities, legislators or policy makers. This has negative consequences for children, their caregivers and wider society. The thesis concludes with consideration of the implications of these findings for the state and suggests changes to ensure equitable treatment of children of defendant mothers in England and Wales.