The Experiences of Black Mothers' Incarceration and the Reunification of Families

The qualitative study examined Black mothers’ incarceration and the reunification of families among four mothers using Black feminist theory and symbolic internationalism (SI). The guiding research questions were: How do formerly incarcerated mothers retrospectively describe their mothering experiences while incarcerated and during reintegration? How do formerly incarcerated Black mothers (re)create meanings surrounding their family roles through interactions with others? I conducted a qualitative narrative inquiry participants completed a demographic questionnaire and engaged in a semistructured interview. Data was analyzed through thematic analysis and emotional coding. Three themes were constructed and are: (1) aided social support, (2) mother’s protective intuition, (3) flexibility in motherhood. Many findings are consistent with previous research that suggests children who receive and experience warmth and stability with their alternative caregiver displayed lower levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. In other words, warm kin caregivers played big role in the child’s well-being through stressful period of separation from their mother (Mackintosh et al., 2006). This is consistent with the current study as mothers expressed that their children were left with family and that their family took good care of their children by providing them with care, shelter, providing during holidays, and keeping the home nice and neat.