Joyce A. Arditti

Families and Incarceration: An Ecological Approach:

This article advances an ecological framework that emphasizes the context of parental incarceration and its impact on families and children. Particular attention is given to the disenfranchisement resulting from a family members imprisonment, loss, and the experience of family visiting in corrections settings. Drawing from U. Bronfenbrenners (1977) systemic approach to understanding development, the framework provides a basis from which to interpret existing scholarship as well as guide ecologically sensitive practice and policy.

Preventing Physical and Emotional Abuse of Children

Since the early 1960s, views on the primary causes of child abuse and neglect have changed considerably. The traditional assumption was that anyone who abused or neglected a child had to be abnormal or disturbed. Now, it is widely recognized that normal people under the pervasive influences of socio-economic disadvantage, cultural sanctioning of violence, and the break up of the nuclear family can be at high risk for child abuse or neglect. As these societal problems are not likely to abate in the near future, this book proposes that mental health professionals must play a larger role in helping parents and children establish healthier, violence-free relationships. Written to assist practitioners and students who regularly deal with at-risk families, it offers practical techniques and programmatic strategies for early intervention and treatment.The premise of this volume is that child abuse prevention is best achieved by maximizing the childs developmental abilities and strengthening the parent-child relationship. Laying the groundwork for this early intervention approach, the book opens with a definition of physical and emotional abuse in both legal and clinical terms, a discussion on the goals and boundaries of parental discipline, and a demographic profile of abusive families. Following an examination of why abusive behavior occurs, the impact of physical and emotional abuse on childrens development, and what that implies for primary and secondary prevention, the author presents an intervention model linked to critical transition periods for family members. The programs practical requirements are enumerated and chapters describe how to: introduce families to the clinic, communicate concerns, delineate parental responsibilities, and establish peer group support and social services.Assessment procedures are detailed with an emphasis on the importance of identifying parental expectations so that treatment can be tailored to fit the needs of the family. Chapters on intervention describe methods for promoting parental sensitivity and responsiveness to child behavior and improving parental teaching, discipline, and anger management skills. Throughout, case examples and excerpts of therapist-client discussion illuminate both issues and technique.Presenting effective ways to help potentially abusive families change, this book is indispensable for a wide array of social service and mental health professionals. It complements todays reemphasis on maintaining integrity of the family, as opposed to out-of-home placements, and provides professionals with potent strategies for preventing child abuse and neglect.

Noncustodial Mothers: Developing Strategies of Support.

Despite the fact that the number of noncustodial mothers is increasing, very little is known about the experience of these women. This study sought to gain a greater understanding of this growing number of women by examining issues surrounding the decision to relinquish custody and exploring their postdivorce relationships with their former spouses and children. Qualitative and quantitative interview data collected from 13 noncustodial mothers granted divorces in southwestern Virginia between 1986 and 1990 were analyzed. Based on the results of the study, suggestions for intervention are discussed.

Joint and Sole Custody Mothers: Implications for Research and Practice

The authors evaluated the ability of a conceptual model encompassing variables related to parenting, father involvement, and mothers resources to predict custody type for divorced mothers. Findings revealed that parenting stress, coparental relationship quality, custody satisfaction, and age of children in the house hold were predictive of custody type. Results indicated that mothers with joint custody re ported lower levels of parenting stress, better coparental relations, and had older children than did solecustody mothers. Of particular interest was the finding that higher levels of custody satisfaction were associated with solecustody status. The psychological meanings parents attach to legal custody status are explored along with how the organizational properties of custody status might differ for mothers and fathers. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Intergenerational Transmission Attributions in Relationships With Parents and Intimate Others

This study examined the attributions of young adults about their relationships with their parents and intimate others. In addition to their attributional reports, participants also provided information about the quality of their intimate relationships. The findings indicated that higher relationship quality was related to attributions in ways that were consistent with attributional theory. In addition, attributional differences between current and past relationships suggested relationship-sustaining versus relationship-terminating attributional patterns. Attributions about intimate relationships also were associated with attributions about relationships with parents. Specifically, (a) the attributions that individuals made about the positive aspects of their relationships with their mothers and (b) and the attributions about the negative aspects of their relationships with their fathers were related to their attributions in their intimate relationship. The findings suggest some refinements in attribution theory regarding close relationships and introduce the value of exploring the intergenerational transmission of attributional patterns.

Implications of In-Person Visits for Incarcerated Parents’ Family Relationships and Parenting Experience

Using data from 69 incarcerated parents, we examine the associations of in-person visitation frequency and problems with offender-child closeness, offender-caregiver relationship quality, and offenders’ parenting distress and coparenting. Visitation problems, but not frequency, were associated with greater offender-child closeness, visitation frequency and problems were associated with offender parenting distress, and there was a trend association between visit problems and coparenting. Neither visitation frequency nor problems were associated with offender-caregiver relationship quality. Results highlight the importance of in-person visitation for offender-child relationships and offenders’ parenting experience during incarceration as well as the need to distinguish between the frequency of those visits and the problems that occur during them.

Family process perspective on the heterogeneous effects of maternal incarceration on child wellbeing; the trouble with differences

Although the preponderance of evidence suggests that parental incarceration has lasting and detrimental effects on children (Arditti, 2012; Murray and Farrington, 2008a; Murray, Farrington, Sekol, and Olsen, 2009; Poehlmann and Eddy, 2010; Wildeman and Wakefield, 2014), research has been advancing that seeks to understand the conditions in which negative consequences are most likely. The issue of heterogeneity involves considering variation in childrens social and family environments, as well as examining incongruities in child and family outcomes as they pertain to parental incarceration. As pointed out by Turney and Wildeman (2015, this issue), these incongruities among studies are more obvious with regard to maternal incarceration and child outcomes, and they could stem from a methodological approach with qualitative studies suggesting a wider and more nuanced range of possibilities for children experiencing incarceration than quantitative studies. Given the epistemological assumptions that guide qualitative research, it makes sense that new and unexpected possibilities could then emerge, including findings suggesting that children might do well in conjunction with a parents incarceration. Sample variation, measurement, and different statistical approaches contribute to heterogeneous effects of maternal incarceration on children. In this policy essay, I discuss the applied implications of the issue of heterogeneity as it pertains to maternal incarceration and comment on a well-executed analysis examining the heterogeneous effects of maternal incarceration. Turney and Wildeman used a well-known representative quantitative data set surveying fragile families. The central conclusion of their study was that maternal incarceration was deleterious for children whose mothers were least likely to experience incarceration but mostly inconsequential for children of mothers more likely to experience incarceration. Turney and Wildemans findings lend support for the need to study both average and heterogeneous effects of parental incarceration. In the following discussion, I hope to help augment explanations for the heterogeneous effects of maternal incarceration. My comments are informed by a family process perspective that pays close attention to mediating mechanisms and childhood and family resilience. I situate these explanations by first summarizing the context of maternal incarceration.... Language: en

Relational Vulnerabilities of Incarcerated and Reentry Mothers: Therapeutic Implications

A qualitative study involving a follow-up interview with 10 incarcerated and reentry mothers in rural southwest and central Virginia was conducted to explore the influence that women’s close relationships have on their reentry experiences with their families. The Vulnerability Conceptual Model (VCM) was used to sensitize an examination of how incarcerated and reentry mothers negotiate relational vulnerabilities in the context of varying situational vulnerability. Grounded theory analysis revealed three themes that characterized relational vulnerabilities. Given our focus on close relationships and the potential of the VCM to identify opportunities for resilience and vulnerability, we highlighted the influence of ambiguous and ambivalent relationships and unresolved loss and grief due to relationship dissolution or the death of a parent, sibling, child, or intimate partner in the reentry process. The data revealed two types of reentry mothers with divergent trajectories for social reintegration. Implications of these types for therapeutic treatment approaches for reentry women are discussed.

Staying Close When Apart

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explored meaning and process in long-distance dating relationships. Based on in-depth interviews with 10 students aged 23–35, the following areas were examined: meanings connected to the relationship and separation, relational maintenance strategies, and commitment processes. Findings suggested that processes associated with intimacy were applicable to long-distance relationships-including the importance of subjective meanings around “feeling close.” Other commonalities among participants included a strong foundation of friendship as well as the importance of technology in staying connected. Many participants identified trust as a prerequisite and result of commitment. The predominantly positive view about long-distance relationships seemed to be facilitated by meanings attributed to the separation that emphasized its temporary and necessary nature.

Drug Policy and Families: Casualties of the War

ABSTRACT This paper explores the consequences of drug policies, especially punitive criminal sanctions, for the families of offenders. Mandatory minimum sentences and certain legal developments have created substantial growth in the prison industry with a likely increase in the number and intensity of harms to drug offenders and their families. Negative outcomes include at-risk developmental pathways for children, uncertain quality of care and parenting, family dissolution, and weakened communities. The evidence suggests that punitive drug policies come at great social and economic cost with minimal benefits. Harm-reduction is offered as a framework for change in relation to drug offenders and their families. Recommendations for family preservation and sentencing reform are discussed.