Incarcerated women are more likely than mile prisoners to remain the primary parent responsible for the care of their children and different hardships are imposed on families than when fathers are imprisoned. The purpose of this study is to examine demographic characteristics, self-awareness (self- esteem and sex-role orientation), and parental competency of incarcerated mothers, to offer classes and follow-up sessions on these topics and to determine the influence of the sessions upon these individuals. Even though two-thirds of the female inmates have children under the age of 18, programs which aim to help inmate mothers become more self-aware and to increase parental competence are infrequently offered or poor in quality Researcher agree self-awareness is necessary to parent effectively. There have been studies of female inmates perceptions of self-awareness and parental attitudes. Few have examined these concepts in an organized manner, relating them to program content and follow-up sessions. Therefore, guided by Symbolic Interaction Role Theory, the aims of the proposed study are to: 1) assess the demographic characteristics, parental competency, and self-awareness of incarcerated moths in a maximum-security prison; 2) implement a six-week parenting and self-awareness curriculum on inmate mothers' perceptions of parental competency and self-awareness. A series of six classes will be offered two hours weekly, followed by two hour group sessions once a month for four months. There will be four of these series, with 25 female inmates in each for a total of 100 subjects. Parental competency and self-awareness will be compared for each group at the beginning of the series, repeated at the end of the six-week classes, and repeated again, at the end of the follow-up sessions. Data analysis will included measures of central tendency and dispersion, paired t-tests, and Person product moment correlations. The significance of the project is five-fold. First, an analysis of the data will assist in building a significant knowledge base regarding the phenomenon of parental competency and self-awareness in female inmates. Second, the study will yield information that will aid programs aimed at female inmates and their children. Third, this project will provide a framework for a parental competency and self-awareness program for female inmates. Fourth, this study should be of importance to all professions who study and/or provide service to female inmates. Finally, this study examines the relationship of parental competency and self-awareness and adds to the knowledge of providing more effective female inmate services.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter