Maternal drug history, incarceration for drug-related crimes, and post-release relapse as risk factors for interrupted attachment and maternal separations when children reenter the community from a prison nursery

Children with an incarcerated mother are increasingly acknowledged as a population at risk for negative developmental and social consequences, presumably triggered by the forced separation imprisonment creates. Prior and subsequent separations and maternal drug involvements have not been taken into account in describing child outcomes. Prison nursery programs are expected to offset negative effects for selected children by allowing pregnant incarcerated women to co-reside with their newborns through the infancy year. From a larger, longitudinal study of the nation's oldest prison nursery, a sample of 72 dyads in which the baby has been released to the community is analyzed. Comparisons of maternal sensitivity and attachment achieved at release and subsequent occurrences of forced or voluntary separations are made between women with and without three maternal drug involvement factors: abuse history, drug-related crime, and reentry relapse. Attachment is measured by the NCAST maternal sensitivity subscale for children less than one year of age at release and by the Strange Situation Procedure for those one year or older, both measures based on Bowlby/Ainsworth attachment theory. Drug involvements are not significant factors in determining which women develop maternal sensitivity as a condition for infants' achievement of secure attachment in the prison nursery but are strongly associated with interruption of maternal caregiving following release (drug history χ²16.52 p<0.000; relapse χ²11.27 p<0.001; drug crime χ²3.56 p=0.06). Former women prisoners with these drug related factors need continued treatment and parenting support during reentry to protect the gains made for mother and child in the prison nursery.