The Experience of Prisoners’ Parents: A Meta‐Synthesis of Qualitative Studies

• Author: Keren Gueta
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12312
• Date: 01 September 2018
• Published date: 01 September 2018

The Experience of Prisoners’ Parents:

A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Studies

KEREN GUETA*

The parents of prisoners have long drawn the attention of researchers, due to their role

in the etiology of criminality as well as the importance of their support of their offspring

during and after incarceration. However, although studies have shown that the parents of

prisoners experience high levels of distress, burden, and social stigma, research into their

experience is only now beginning to emerge. This metasynthesis examined the limited body

of qualitative research on the experience of prisoners’ parents, as an exploratory step

toward advancing the understanding of their experience. Relevant terms were used to sys-

tematically search key databases. Ten small-scale studies, which varied in focus, location,

and disciplinary orientation, met the inclusion criteria. The synthesis produced four core

themes, reflecting findings regarding parents’ (primarily mothers’) experience of their off-

spring’s incarceration: parenting from a distance; the burden of care; troubled parental

identity; and social reaction. Furthermore, the findings suggested a number of possible

mediating factors of this experience, such as parents’ social capital and their cognitive

appraisal of their offspring’s criminality. These themes imply a possible experience of “im-

prisonment by association” among the parents of inmates and illuminate features that may

be unique to them. Given the inherent limitations regarding generalizability of a metasyn-

thesis and the heterogeneity of the experiences of the parents represented by the articles

reviewed, the findings call for future large-scale quantitative studies to explore the ch al-

lenges and therapeutic needs of parents of prisoners regarding the themes identified.

Keywords: Prisoners’ parents; Collateral consequences; Qualitative metasynthesis

Fam Proc 57:767–782, 2018

INTRODUCTION

In her pioneering work, Pauline Morris (1965) shed light on the plight of prison ers and

their families. Since then, research literature has highlighted the collateral conse-

quences and punishment of innocent individuals by means of stigma and financial hard-

ship (Hagan & Foster, 2012), resulting in their feeling of serving a sentenc e alongside the

prisoners (Condry, 2013).

However, the relatively substantial body of literature on prisoners’ families has

focused almost entirely on romantic partners and young children (Arditti, Lambert-

Shute, & Joest, 2003; Baker, McHale, Strozier, & Cecil, 2010; Christian & Kennedy,

2011). Few studies have examined the challenges that mothers of prisoners face and

even fewer have considered the experience of their fathers (Condry, 2013). The lack

of such attention is also striking in light of research on parents of offenders, in

*Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to KerenGueta, Department of Criminology,

Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900,Israel. E-mail: Keren.Gueta@biu.ac.il.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or

publication of this article.

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Family Process, Vol. 57, No. 3, 2018 ©2017 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12312

which “criminologists have tended overwhelmingly (and quite properly) to examine

that relation [between the family and the prisoner] for the part it plays in the gene-

sis of crime, defining the family almost exclusively as a catalyst or impediment to

criminality” (Howarth & Rock, 2000, p. 59).

Against this background, the analysis of some recent studies that do address this issue

could enhance our understanding and inform public policy. In light of the current levels of

incarceration and the associated collateral damage, this subject is of particular interest

(Arditti et al., 2003; Christian, Mellow, & Thomas, 2006).

Furthermore, in addition to the recent attention to the experience of prisoners’ parents,

there is increasing use of the life course perspective, considering the family of origin and

the “linked lives” of adult children and their parents (Greenfield & Marks, 2006). This type

of investigation highlights lifetime developmental transformations of this relationship

and exposes its impact on the well-being of both parents and children (Fingerman, Pitzer,

Lefkowitz, Birditt, & Mroczek, 2008). Specifically, the well-being of parents—and espe-

cially mothers—has been found to decrease in response to negative experiences of their

adult children (Greenfield & Marks, 2006), especially if the problems of the offspring are

the outcome of their own behaviors or choices (Pillemer & Suitor, 1991). Such problems

may undermine a parent’s self-perception, arousing feelings of failure and incompetence

and creating parental “troubled identity” (Gubrium & Holstein, 2001; Gueta, Peled, &

Sander-Almoznino, 2016).

Given the gap in the literature, the purpose of this article was to integrate and interpret

the research on parents’ experiences by means of qualitative metasynthesis (QMS) as an

exploratory step toward better understanding of this experience. The research question

addressed was: What is the experience and perceived impact of offspring incarceration on

parents of inmates? To address this, I adopted an integrated theoretical framework that

draws on the life course perspective (Greenfield & Marks, 2006) and social const ruction-

ism. A social constructionist approach acknowledges families as socially and materially

constructed, and emphasizes the interaction, discourse, and interpretation that produce

domestic order (Holstein & Gubrium, 1995).

Parenting an Offender

For many parents, incarceration of offspring is a continuation of earlier criminal activ-

ity, usually initiated at adolescence. Accordingly, their experience may express the cumu-

lative effect of stressors related to the behavior of their offspring over a long period of

time. Parents are held responsible for their adolescent children’s criminality. For example,

the antisocial behavior of young people may be attributed to inadequate parenting, and

specifically, the inability to control one’s child (MacNeil, Church, Nelson-Gardell, &

Young, 2015). Subsequently, parents, and especially mothers, have been subjected to par-

enting orders and other parenting programs intended to stop their adolescent children

from offending (Holt, 2010).

Parents of adult prisoners may also bear the burden of “guilt by association” (Condry,

2013). This is especially true for mothers, whom the general public may see as the root

cause of their children’s offenses (Jackson & Mannix, 2004; Melendez, Lichtenstein, &

Dolliver, 2016). In addition, parents of incarcerated adults are more likely than the prison-

ers’ partners and children to maintain contact with them (Murray, 2003). Research has

shown that parents suffer multiple hardships, including emotional, social, and health

problems, during the imprisonment of their offspring (Lee, Wildeman, Wang, Matusko, &

Jackson, 2014). Specifically, in many cases the financial burden of prison visits, phone

calls, and travel further exacerbates the situation of low-income families (Christian et al.,

2006).

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