Perception of Fatherhood and Self-Esteem Among Incarcerated Fathers After Participation in an Adlerian Parenting Training

Many incarcerated individuals experience harm to their identity as fathers upon entry to prison, and a decrease in their self-esteem. This field research examined changes in fatherhood perceptions and self-esteem among 109 incarcerated fathers across six prisons. Participants were divided into two groups: an intervention group (n = 59) receiving Adlerian parenting training, and a comparison group (n = 50) engaged in alternative educational activities. Each intervention comprised 12 weekly sessions over 3 months. Data was gathered using pre-post questionnaires to measure changes from the beginning to the end of the intervention period. The findings indicate that both research groups experienced increase in perception of fatherhood and self-esteem between the beginning and end of the study (p < .001); however, the improvement observed in the Adlerian group was significantly greater than that in the comparison group. These findings are important, because the perception of fatherhood and parental self-esteem greatly influence the relations between fathers and their children. The findings stress the need for Adlerian groups for parenting training in prison as this may have positive implications for successful familial and social reintegration and may reduce recidivism and intergenerational cycles of incarceration.