The impact of contextual family risks on prisoners' children's behavioural outcomes and the potential protective role of family functioning moderators.

Research suggests that children of prisoners have an increased risk for behavioural and emotional problems. However, in a resilience approach, one should expect heterogeneous outcomes and thus apply a contextualized perspective. As this is rarely acknowledged in empirical research, the present study sought to fill this gap using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study on 801 children of imprisoned fathers. We explored the extent to which cumulative family risks measured during the first year of life (e.g., poverty and mental health problems) predicted behavioural outcomes at age 9 and whether potentially protective aspects of family functioning moderated the impact of these risk factors. Cumulative risk significantly predicted behavioural outcomes, but the associations were weak. No strong evidence of moderation was found. At low risk, mother-child closeness moderated behavioural outcomes. There was also some evidence of moderation by accumulated protective factors. Potential implications for policy and practice and challenges for further research are discussed.The authors would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council for providing funding for this research, the organisers of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study Summer Data Workshop 2013 for their introduction to the dataset and Steve Lainé for his technical support.This is the final version. It first appeared from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2015.105037

Prisoners’ Families, Penal Power, and the Referred Pains of Imprisonment

This chapter develops the analysis of the ‘punishment beyond the legal offender’. It illustrates how parental imprisonment was experienced differently within and across families, and while not all experiences were negative, there were common experiences of hardship. The chapter considers these personal and social hardships ‘referred pains of imprisonment’. Its analysis shows how these experiences were shaped by the direct contact families had with criminal justice agents, the strength of the relationship with the imprisoned parent, and the anticipated and actual response of others within the local community. The chapter introduces a distinction between ‘acute’ pains that were experienced in the early stages of engagement with the criminal justice process (the arrest, trial, and removal of the father from the family) and ‘chronic’ pains that persisted and burdened family members over the longer term

The mental health trajectories of male prisoners and their female (ex-)partners from pre- to post-release.

BACKGROUND: There are high rates of mental disorders among prisoners. Prisoners are also likely to have difficulties with intimate relationships, perhaps related to the imprisonment, but their mental health may be relevant. There is a dearth of research on intimate relationship qualities and mental health of offenders and their partners over time. AIMS: To explore mental health and relationship trajectories among men in prison, and their partners, before the men's release, through a time 6 months post-release, and then again 8 years later, and to test associations between relationship quality and mental health. METHOD: Data stem from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded longitudinal 'Families and Imprisonment Research' (FAIR) project on paternal imprisonment and family resilience. Inclusion criteria for the study were men serving a short- to medium-term prison sentence who were within 4 months of release; with a current or ex-partner with whom they have at least one child; and for whom there were data on mental health and relationship factors during imprisonment, and at 6 months and 8 years post-release. Similar data were also obtained for their (ex-)partners. RESULTS: The main sample comprised 39 men and 39 women who were in the same 'family set' for the first two waves, and after 8 years, 26 men and 30 women were retained. Just over 40% of the men and their (ex-)partners each disclosed that they had a mental health problem preceding his release. Proportions fluctuated slightly over time, with some dissonance between self-perceived disorder and self-ratings on a symptoms rating scale. Twenty-nine couples sustained their relationship during the transition between prison and release, but after 8 years, only four remained together. There was little evidence of association between measures of mental health and relationship quality among either the men or their partners. CONCLUSIONS: The findings challenge assumptions about the extent to which partners can play fully supportive roles in a former prisoner's transition from institutional life back into the community, as partners are also likely to be experiencing difficulties during this time. Thus, former prisoners and their families should be afforded equal access to support and assistance during offender rehabilitation

Prisoners’ Families’ Research: Developments, Debates and Directions

After many years of relative obscurity, research on prisoners’ families has gained significant momentum. It has expanded from case-oriented descriptive analyses of family experiences to longitudinal studies of child and family development and even macro analyses of the effects on communities in societies of mass incarceration. Now the field engages multi-disciplinary and international interest although it arguably still remains on the periphery of mainstream criminological, psychological and sociological research agendas. This chapter discusses developments in prisoners’ families’ research and its positioning in academia and practice. It does not aim to provide an all-encompassing review of the literature rather it will offer some reflections on how and why the field has developed as it has and on its future directions. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first discusses reasons for the historically small body of research on prisoners’ families and for the growth in research interest over the past two decades. The second analyses patterns and shifts in the focus of research studies and considers how the field has been shaped by intersecting disciplinary interests of psychology, sociology, criminology and socio-legal studies. The final part reflects on substantive and ethical issues that are likely to shape the direction of prisoners’ families’ research in the future

Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination

Previous research suggests that closing one's eyes or averting one's gaze from another person can benefit visual-spatial imagination by interrupting cognitive demands associated with face-to-face interaction (Markson and Paterson, 2009). The present study further investigated this influence of social gaze on adults' visual-spatial imagination, using the matrix task (Kerr, 1987, 1993). Participants mentally kept track of a pathway through an imaginary 2-dimensional (2D) or 3-dimensional (3D) matrix. Concurrent with this task, participants either kept their eyes closed or maintained eye contact with another person, mutual gaze with a person whose eyes were obscured (by wearing dark glasses), or unreciprocated gaze toward the face of a person whose own gaze was averted or whose face was occluded (by placing a paper bag over her head). Performance on the 2D task was poorest in the eye contact condition, and did not differ between the other gaze conditions, which produced ceiling performance. However, the more difficult 3D task revealed clear effects of social gaze. Performance on the 3D task was poorest for eye contact, better for mutual gaze, and equally better still for the unreciprocated gaze and eye-closure conditions. The findings reveal the especially disruptive influence of eye contact on concurrent visual-spatial imagination and a benefit for cognitively demanding tasks of disengaging eye contact during face-to-face interaction

Male prisoners’ family relationships and resilience in resettlement

Theories of social bonding and social capital support the argument that positive family relationships are important for resilience in resettlement after release from prison. However, this topic has rarely been addressed in prospective longitudinal studies of resettlement processes. This study gathered interview data from 39 family pairs of British male prisoners and their (ex-)partners before and after release. Questions on the father’s relationship, involvement and contact with the family were used as an index to predict seven resettlement outcomes. At the bivariate level and after control of pre-prison risk variables, family relationships predicted positive outcomes with finding accommodation, alcohol and drug use, the extent to which ex-prisoners felt they were coping with resettlement challenges and the quality of post-release family relations. In contrast, difficulties with employment and finance were neither related to previous family relations nor to the other resettlement outcomes. The findings suggest no general protective influence of family relationships during resettlement, but a strong effect on social and emotional aspects. Theoretical issues, limitations and potential practical consequences are discussed