At-risk Mothers' Parenting Capacity: An Epistemological Analysis of Change Through Intensive Intervention

• Published in: Clinical child psychology and psychiatry 2009-01, Vol.14 (1), p.25-41
• Main Authors: Worsham, Nancy L., Kretchmar-Hendricks, Molly D., Swenson, Natalia, Goodvin, Rebecca L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; At risk; Biological and medical sciences; Blood pressure; Child; Child Custody; Child Development; Children; Epistemology; Family environment. Family history; Female; Foster care; Foster children; Foster Home Care; Helping professions; Humans; Infants; Intensive treatment; Intervention; Maternal Behavior; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Mother-Child Relations; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Parenthood education; Parenting; Parents & parenting; Program Development; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk; Risk Factors; Self Concept; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Toddlers; Treatments; Women
• ISSN: 1359-1045; 1461-7021
• DOI: 10.1177/1359104508100134

Using an epistemological framework, we examine the process of change for two at-risk mothers participating in the Children's Ark, an innovative foster care program. The Children's Ark invited at-risk mothers who had lost custody of their children to live in a structured, supervised environment with their infants/toddlers while receiving intensive intervention. Focusing on two mothers who completed the program and regained custody of their children, we developed a coding system from Women's ways of knowing (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986) to analyze entry and discharge interviews, and as a means of exploring alternative conceptualizations to the helping professions' understanding of at-risk families. In terms of an epistemological framework, we found that mothers increased their capacity to acknowledge their own minds and voices and those of their children. Additionally, mothers came to recognize their capacity to generate knowledge, especially through dialogue and relationships with others. In conclusion, we discuss the utility of an epistemological perspective in describing and exploring change in at-risk mothers, including possible implications for practice.