Parental attitudes of mothers and fathers serving a prison sentence

Abstract

The article analyses parental attitudes of mothers and fathers serving prison sentences. A comparison was made between the attitudes of 50 women and 50 men, parents of minor children up to the age of 18, who had been raising them up before they were imprisoned and maintain regular contact with them during their imprisonment. In M. Plopa's Parental Attitudes Questionnaire, convicted fathers achieved high scores in the subscale of requirements, while low scores within the scope of autonomy and protection attitude. Convicted mothers, in turn, tend to adopt an excessively protective and inconsistent attitude towards their children. The intensity of individual parental attitudes depends on the type of crime committed. The perpetrators of crimes against the family, compared to other parents, accept their children to a significantly lower degree and are significantly more demanding towards them. The results of the survey clearly indicate that respondents carry out their parental roles improperly, which probably disturbs mutual relations in their families. It was suggested that in penitentiary work with sentenced parents a comprehensive and systematic diagnosis of parental attitudes should be carried out and their pedagogical awareness should be raised, among others, through shaping the ability to communicate with a child, appropriate selection of punishments and rewards, showing affection.

Keywords

• parental attitudes of convicts
• domestic violence
• people convicted of domestic violence
• education of convicts