Experiences of youth of incarcerated parents
Nosek, M. (University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions)
An estimated 2.7 million children in the U.S. have a parent who is incarcerated, and approximately 10 million children have experienced their parent being incarcerated at some point in their lives. Children of incarcerated parents are more likely to live in poverty or experience household instability even after controlling for parental substance abuse, mental health, or inadequate education. Not only is having a parent in prison considered an adverse childhood event, it is distinguished from other traumatic
events due to the associated isolation and stigma. The purpose of this examination was to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of children of incarcerated parents. A convenience sample of youth, called the Peacemakers, who were participating in a series of empowerment workshops to learn advocacy and leadership skills shared stories of their lives during their parent's incarceration through writing exercises, one-on-one interviews, rap songs, poems and art. Since preliminary findings reveal experiences of being labeled, and judged by others, narratives and other media will be analyzed via a phenomenological perspective on shame. According to Hegel, shame is experienced as “man’s separation from his natural and sensual existence.” The innocence of the lived body is stripped, becomes depersonalized throwing the subject back onto himself. Ashamed person now perceives self from the outside, becoming simultaneously the perceiver and the perceived. A primary aim of the Peacemakers is to help youth end the silence and reduce the experience of shame to feel a sense of
openness to others and a re-personalization of self. Peers, teachers, counselors and other community members who are unaware of the impact of having an incarcerated parent may benefit from this revealed understanding of the phenomenon.
An estimated 2.7 million children in the U.S. have a parent who is incarcerated, and approximately 10 million children have experienced their parent being incarcerated at some point in their lives. Children of incarcerated parents are more likely to live in poverty or experience household instability even after controlling for parental substance abuse, mental health, or inadequate education. Not only is having a parent in prison considered an adverse childhood event, it is distinguished from other traumatic
events due to the associated isolation and stigma. The purpose of this examination was to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of children of incarcerated parents. A convenience sample of youth, called the Peacemakers, who were participating in a series of empowerment workshops to learn advocacy and leadership skills shared stories of their lives during their parent's incarceration through writing exercises, one-on-one interviews, rap songs, poems and art. Since preliminary findings reveal experiences of being labeled, and judged by others, narratives and other media will be analyzed via a phenomenological perspective on shame. According to Hegel, shame is experienced as “man’s separation from his natural and sensual existence.” The innocence of the lived body is stripped, becomes depersonalized throwing the subject back onto himself. Ashamed person now perceives self from the outside, becoming simultaneously the perceiver and the perceived. A primary aim of the Peacemakers is to help youth end the silence and reduce the experience of shame to feel a sense of
openness to others and a re-personalization of self. Peers, teachers, counselors and other community members who are unaware of the impact of having an incarcerated parent may benefit from this revealed understanding of the phenomenon.
“Tensions from being questioned are trapped in
one’s body” Im/migrant women’s experiences of
health-related deservingness in Sweden and Mexico
one’s body” Im/migrant women’s experiences of
health-related deservingness in Sweden and Mexico
Robertson, E.K. (Nord University)
How do we perceive the concept “health-related deservingness”, when migrants, minorities and marginalized persons are
reckoned as a threat to welfare states? Can a phenomenological approach help us to broaden our horizons and deepen our understanding for ‘the others’, how they themselves experience what it means and what consequences it gives to be rendered undeserving or deserving?
These questions will be the focus of this presentation, taking examples from interviews with women in Sweden and Mexico about their and their children’s experiences of everyday life and their health encounters in childbearing.
The concept of health-related deservingness illuminates the ethical and moral gap in between the universal juridical policies and the actual access or barriers experienced in health- encounters. A positivistic biomedical approach shapes the ‘clinical gaze’, focus on organs and the ‘body-as-a-machine’ with attention on individual characteristics and risk behaviors. The
interviewed women talked about barriers and experiences of both being treated as a stranger in society, feeling undeserved,
being ignored or rejected in healthcare encounters, were devaluing and discriminating. Experiences as being subtly blamed for their health was stressful, gave tensions that was “written in their bodies”, inscribed on all bodily levels, in more or less detrimental ways in respect of their health.
Contrary to the biomedical Cartesian dualism, a phenomenological approach emphasizes that we always exist as and relate through the body to others in the world. It is decisive for our ability to give meaning to our lived experiences and perceptions. When the interviewed women told they were taken seriously, listened to, supported and felt deserved, it made them feel stronger and enabled them to boost their sense of self, as we live through our bodies as sensing and feeling whole entities. The consequences of chosen approach is a matter of ethic-of-care and social justice.
How do we perceive the concept “health-related deservingness”, when migrants, minorities and marginalized persons are
reckoned as a threat to welfare states? Can a phenomenological approach help us to broaden our horizons and deepen our understanding for ‘the others’, how they themselves experience what it means and what consequences it gives to be rendered undeserving or deserving?
These questions will be the focus of this presentation, taking examples from interviews with women in Sweden and Mexico about their and their children’s experiences of everyday life and their health encounters in childbearing.
The concept of health-related deservingness illuminates the ethical and moral gap in between the universal juridical policies and the actual access or barriers experienced in health- encounters. A positivistic biomedical approach shapes the ‘clinical gaze’, focus on organs and the ‘body-as-a-machine’ with attention on individual characteristics and risk behaviors. The
interviewed women talked about barriers and experiences of both being treated as a stranger in society, feeling undeserved,
being ignored or rejected in healthcare encounters, were devaluing and discriminating. Experiences as being subtly blamed for their health was stressful, gave tensions that was “written in their bodies”, inscribed on all bodily levels, in more or less detrimental ways in respect of their health.
Contrary to the biomedical Cartesian dualism, a phenomenological approach emphasizes that we always exist as and relate through the body to others in the world. It is decisive for our ability to give meaning to our lived experiences and perceptions. When the interviewed women told they were taken seriously, listened to, supported and felt deserved, it made them feel stronger and enabled them to boost their sense of self, as we live through our bodies as sensing and feeling whole entities. The consequences of chosen approach is a matter of ethic-of-care and social justice.