A Systematic Review of Parenting Interventions for Incarcerated Mothers

• In Event: Female Offenders

Abstract

Background: As a result of the significant increase in the number of incarcerated women over the last several decades, there has been a shift towards developing interventions to meet the needs of female offenders. Parent training is considered highly relevant for this population, as many incarcerated women report parenting challenges and most plan to regain custody of their children following release. Prison-based parenting programs are highly variable and have not been systematically evaluated, so it is unclear whether they are an effective means of addressing parenting issues in this population. Objective: Evaluate the effects of prison-based parenting programs for incarcerated women on a variety of parenting outcomes. Methods: A systematic search of the published and unpublished literature was conducted for parenting intervention studies with incarcerated mothers using electronic databases. Results: The search yielded 4333 studies; eighteen studies met inclusion criteria. Evaluation outcomes included: parenting stress, parenting attitudes, parenting behaviour, and parenting knowledge. Conclusions: The results suggest that parenting programs can be effective in improving outcomes for incarcerated mothers. Additionally, this review highlights the need for future research involving larger sample sizes and randomization to improve our understanding of how to best meet the parenting needs of incarcerated mothers.

Author

• Monique Tremblay, Ryerson University