Intensive Parenting Ideologies and Risks for Recidivism among Justice-Involved Mothers

Abstract

Intensive parenting is the dominant parenting ideology in the United States, and it holds parents, especially mothers, accountable for the outcomes of their children, and urges them to expend extensive time and resources on child-rearing, even when such efforts compromise the parent’s wellbeing. Research continuously highlights the harms associated with women’s intensive parenting beliefs. This study employed factor analysis on the Intensive Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire to examine whether the resulting dimensions of intensive parenting related to risks for recidivism for 164 justice-involved mothers. Results indicated that their strong endorsement of essentialism (beliefs that mothers are uniquely qualified and responsible for child-rearing) and parenting that is all-consuming (beliefs that parenting requires great time and effort) were significantly associated with multiple risks for recidivism. The findings clarify how specific intensive parenting beliefs factor into mothers’ risks for recidivism and suggest the importance of not encouraging these beliefs in correctional settings.

Keywords:

• Intensive parenting ideology
• justice-involved mothers
• probation and parole
• risks for recidivism

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant No. 1430372 entitled The Effects of Identity Development on Women’s Recidivism.