Impact of the mother-father relationship on how formerly incarcerated fathers perceive their father-child relationship(s) in Mississippi

Issue: Recent prison population trends demonstrate a growth in the number of parents in prison, the majority of which are black and male.  This equates to approximately 1.5 million children experiencing parental incarceration as they grow up.  This also disproportionately places children of incarcerated parents at a greater risk for adverse future outcomes that include involvement within the criminal justice system.

Description: In 2014, Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved of Morehouse School of Medicine and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation concluded a reentry support program for recently released fathers in Mississippi.   This intervention sought to help them find stable employment and establish healthy relationships with their children. Family Relationship Assessments (FRAs), completed by participants, were utilized in a secondary analysis to: (1) understand how formerly incarcerated black fathers perceive their relationship with their child and (2) examine the degree of influence the child’s mother has on this perception. Univariate, bivariate and mixed linear regression analyses were conducted using SAS 9.2 software.

Lessons Learned:Fathers generally rated their relationships with their children positively, but there was some variation in the self-reported FRAs.  The FRAs from participants in the program demonstrated that the mother’s support of the father-child relationship was significantly associated his increased positive view of his relationship with their child (p-values <0.05).

Recommendation: This crucial finding makes a case for prison and reentry programs, initiatives, and policies to invest in the relationships of both parents and their child to prevent adverse future outcome in children and parental recidivism.