Lynn Fenton

Ph.D Supervisors: Dr. Daragh Bradshaw and Dr. Anca Minescu. 

Proposed PhD Title: Exploring the impact of Maternal Incarceration on Mothers and their Children: A Social Identity Approach. 

Project Description  

Children that experience maternal incarceration often experience negative social, emotional, behavioral, and educational outcomes.  Similarly, mothers who experience incarceration experience negative outcomes. Stigma and identity related aspects have been identified as potential pathways through which negative outcomes can be understood. Recognising this, there has been an increase in the number of initiatives supporting this marginalized population through family-focused prison-based initiatives specifically targeting identity-based processes. 

However, research in this area is often scattered across disciplines and databases making it difficult for policy makers and practitioners to access existing research to support evidence-based initiatives. Additionally, findings exploring the impact of maternal incarceration are often conflicted due to jurisdictional issues, with most of the research being conducted on US populations we know very little of the process in non-US jurisdictions. Furthermore, individuals impacted by incarceration are often omitted from the research process so findings can be unrelated to those directly impacted. 

I hope to advance our understanding of the impact of maternal incarceration through the implementation of a multidisciplinary, mixed methodological approach complemented by guidance from an expert advisory group comprised of researchers, practitioners and families who have been impacted by maternal incarceration to ensure research questions and findings remain relevant to those involved. 

Memberships: 

Centre for Social Issues Research http://www.ul.ie/csi-r/ 

Groups on Well-being, Trauma & Health Lab https://growth-ul.wixsite.com/psychology 

School, Child and Youth Mental Health and Well-being Research Lab (SCY-LAB)