Lessons from the Multi-Site Family Study of Incarceration, Parenting, and Partnering

Abstract

The Multi-site Family Study of Incarceration, Parenting, and Partnering (MFS-IP) evaluated a set of demonstration programs funded from 2006–2011 to support healthy family relationships among incarcerated and reentering fathers, their partners, and children. The study documented the implementation of all 12 programs and assessed the impact of couples-based relationship education on relationship quality, recidivism, and other outcomes in four. Site-specific impact designs (matched comparison group and wait-list) were developed to identify treatment and comparison couples, with longitudinal data collected from 1,991 men and 1,482 of their primary intimate or co-parenting partners. Couples were first interviewed during the male partner's incarceration and then again at nine, 18, and (in the two largest sites) 34 months later. A mixed-methods approach assessed the impact of programming for individual men and women at specific points in time (using comparisons of weighted means at three follow-up time points), compared the overall trajectories of treatment and comparison couples (using latent growth modeling to model trajectories over the entire follow-up period), and provided a deeper understanding of the meaning of the programming to participants (using in-depth, qualitative interview data).

Impact study findings generally suggested limited effects of couples-based programming on outcomes in most sites across three key domains: intimate relationship quality; parenting and co-parenting quality; and employment, drug use, and recidivism. However, sustained, positive effects emerged in one of the four sites (Indiana Department of Correction). In this site, participation in a one-time, weekend healthy relationship retreat was associated with sustained positive effects on multiple partnership (e.g., intimate relationship quality) and parenting (e.g., financial support for children) outcomes at all three follow-up waves.

Among the policy and program implications suggested by the findings are that programs may be more effective when design and implementation decisions take into account the total context in which the program will be operated. The Indiana couples’ retreat was delivered in the context of special prison housing units for men participating in character- and faith-based programming, who may have been more ready for this type of support or committed to identity transformation. The most significant research implication is that assessing the impact of family-strengthening activities on couples as the unit of analysis and assessing trajectories over time can provide insights on program impacts. By routinely collecting information from both partners, reports from men, women, and couples can be analyzed. Qualitative data was also instrumental in generating a deeper understanding of program impacts on participants.