Engagement in Parent Training for Mothers Being Released from Incarceration

Introduction: Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated mothers form a hard-to-reach population. However, it seems important to reach these mothers: their children are considered one of the most at-risk populations for later delinquency. Since parenting may play a key role in this intergenerational transmission, and parenting programs have been proven to be effective in other populations, their participation in a preventive parenting program might be helpful in breaking this intergenerational cycle.

In a preventive trial of parent training for these mothers, aimed at their children’s disruptive behavior problems and later delinquency, nearly 90% of the mothers who met criteria and were asked to consent, actually chose to participate. Hence, this hard-to-reach population was motivated for a demanding intervention (e.g., time and travelling) and repeated data collection. The present study aimed to explore their reasons for consent and to stay in in the project, and their actual attendance of sessions and assessments.

Methods: Mothers retrospectively rated importance of reasons to participate in the trial, both regarding consent and retention. Mothers responded to ideas preconceived by the researchers and were asked to contribute their own reasons. Intervention facilitators logged attendance at group and individual sessions. Furthermore, participation in assessments was logged. 

Results: Mothers reasons for participation are diverse. We compare mothers’ reasons to consent (for example, an intrinsic need to participate and in the community’s interests) with mothers’ reasons to continue participation (for example, because of received help and in the community’s interests). Furthermore, we test relations between these reasons and attendance of sessions and assessments. We show that both intrinsic and extrinsic needs at study entry, and perceived learning gains during the trial, are related to attendance. Furthermore, we show that control group mothers’ perceived importance of contributing to academic research was related to their participation in the repeated data collection.

Conclusions: Reasons for participation are diverse and might differ between participants and over time. Implications for developing strategies for improving recruitment and retention rates are discussed. Furthermore, characteristics of the intervention that might have played a role in successfully recruiting and retaining participants are discussed.