CYFAR 2010 Research Presentation

The Role of Incarceration on Parenting

Wednesday, May 5
1:30-3 p.m. 

Joyce A. Arditti, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Human Development, Virginia Tech

How does incarceration affect the context and processes of parenting? This research presentation will examine how salient demographic status, along with cumulative disadvantage, institutional practices, and a sociopolitical environment characterized by stigma serve to shape intraindividual and relational processes linked to parental imprisonment. Effects include weakened parenting identities and parental distress for the offender. Relational processes such as family contact and co-parenting during imprisonment are particularly important, as they influence offender parenting while confined and the resumption of familial roles upon release. The implications of parental incarceration on families will be considered, and challenges and recommendations for research, intervention and policy discussed.

Joyce A. Arditti received her doctorate in family studies from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Her research interests include family disruption, parent-child relationships, and public policy. Her scholarship is recognized nationally and abroad and she has published numerous empirical and review articles in psychology, social work, and family studies journals. Her current work emphasizes the impact of incarceration on families, prisoner reentry and maternal distress processes.

She is a long-time member of the National Council on Family Relations and served as editor of Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies from 2004-2009. She is also associated with the Society for the Study of Social Problems and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and is a program evaluation consultant for the CYFAR-funded 4-H LIFE program in Missouri.

Join us in San Francisco on May 4-7 for the Annual CYFAR Conference

The annual CYFAR Conference kicks off with a variety of exciting Pre-Conference workshops on May 4 at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel. The Conference itself begins with breakfast and our keynote speaker Jim Garbarino the morning of May 5, and continues with a stimulating schedule of workshops, computer labs, and seminars through noon on Friday the 7th.   The Program Showcase will highlight your work, but it is just one of the many opportunities to network with colleagues. We look forward to seeing you in May!

Register for the CYFAR Conference

Preliminary Schedule (.pdf 356 kb)