Perceptions of Incarcerated Mother: On Their Children, Themselves and on the Mother-Child Relationship

• In Event: Individual and Family Impacts of Incarceration

Abstract

For a mother, being incarcerated has a significant meaning: she will have to reflect on her deviant lifestyle and readjust her perception of herself as a mother. Studies have shown that for most of them, this isn’t as simple or easy as they struggle with the implication of their incarceration for them and their children, but also with their conflicted maternal identity. Visits, phone calls and letters will becomes the only moments where these women will attempt to play their mothering role. The aim of this exploratory qualitative study was to document the perceptions of mothers on the effects their incarceration had on their children and on their relationships with them. Interviews with 15 incarcerated mothers were done. Our analysis allowed a rich description of the children’s reactions following the mother’s detention but also, of the impact that it had in the mother-child relationship. Our results also illustrate how the mothers’ make sense on their own broken relationships with their mothers and how they comprehend the transmission of cycles of pain (Greene, Haney & Hurtado, 2000), emphasizing the lasting hardship of being a incarcerated/law-breaking mother. Implications for intervention will also be discussed.

Author

• Amélie Couvrette, Université du Québec en Outaouais