STEP from Inside Out: A parent skills training program which serves as a treatment modality for inmate-mothers and their children.

Psychotherapy

May 2021

Full Citation

Thompson, J. (1990). STEP from Inside Out: A parent skills training program which serves as a treatment modality for inmate-mothers and their children. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Abstract

This dissertation's purpose is to offer a conceptualization of antisocial personality, to develop a treatment program for inmate-mothers based on that conceptualization, and to offer a method by which empirical evidence regarding the program's effectiveness can be gathered. The dissertation proposes that individuals including inmate-mothers diagnosed as antisocial are primarily disordered in terms of their patterns of interpersonal relatedness. The dysfunctional patterns interfere both with the inmate-mother's ability to live in the community and to parent effectively. The conceptualization of antisocial personality as defined by a continuum of interpersonal relatedness guides the development of a parent skills training program designed to change the dysfunctional patters of inmate-mothers and to teach them basic parent skills. While inmates are traditionally resistant to treatment, the dissertation's literature review suggests that the impact of the separation from their children is sufficiently strong to motivate inmate-mothers to enter a clinically-oriented visitation program. The dissertation recognizes that the incarceration of inmate-mothers negatively impacts the psychological well-being of their children. Therefore, inmate-mothers need information to help them reduce the impact that their incarceration will have on their children. The dissertation hypothesizes that inmate-mothers who learn effective relational patterns can teach these patterns to their children. STEP From Inside Out is the correctional treatment program designed to protect the attachment bond between inmate-mothers and their children, to increase the interpersonal relational skills of inmate-mothers which are a prerequisite for effective parenting and maintaining community status, and to interrupt the cycle of family criminality. The program's tripodal design evolves from the dissertation's literature review of effective social skills training to include education, visitation, and counseling. Specific lesson plans appropriate to the learning style of inmate-mothers, all program handouts, and all documents needed to evaluate the program's goal attainment are included. The dissertation recognizes that prison administrators have concerns regarding the implementation programs which include extended visitation. These concerns are reviewed and addressed. The program's design includes procedures to insure that its operation benefits the institution.