“It's a Long Deep Story”: Mothers' Experiences with Loss of Custody

Background and Purpose. Knowledge of biological mothers with children in foster care is scant, especially knowledge of the processes through which they reunify with their children. This study begins to fill this gap in knowledge through an examination of mothers' experiences with custody loss. It also aims to bridge the gap between research and practice by conceptualizing processes relevant to personal change without which a rapprochement between research and practice will remain elusive (Kazdin, 2008). Methods. Population and sample description. The study population was mothers who had had children placed in foster care, had regained custody of their children, and were working in a peer-mentoring program for other mothers seeking reunification with their children. Three mothers from this population comprised the study sample. This sample was selected for this study because their descriptions were lengthy and contained multiple stories; thus, the sample was a purposive one. Mothers were African American, age 35 or older, unmarried, had less than a high school education, and were demographically representative of the population of mothers with children in foster care in the city in which they lived (Wells & Shafran, 2005). Data collection. The investigator interviewed mothers with an interview guide designed to elicit an extended narrative of the experience of mothering under conditions of custody loss. The guide was crafted as a depth interview in order to get “below” the surface of the experience (Johnson, 2002). The guide contains five broad questions (Wengraf, 2001). Each interview took place in the investigator's office, took two hours to complete, and was transcribed (Tedlock, 1983). Transcriptions ranged from 50 to 75 double-spaced pages of typed text. Data analysis. The analysis proceeded in two stages. In the first stage, each transcription according to the following steps: 1) the transcript was reduced slightly so that it included material relevant to the experience of custody loss; 2) this material was placed in chronological order; 3) the text was examined as to broad storyline; and 4) relying on a well-established definition of story (Labov & Waletsky, 1967), specific narratives were identified. Narratives were then analyzed relying on dialogic/performative analysis (Riessman, 2007). In the second stage, contrasts and comparisons were made across analyses to identify meta-narratives for the group.The analysis, therefore, allows mothers' stories to be analyzed as a whole rather than to be separated into themes. Results. Building on concepts drawn from knowledge of motherhood, maltreatment, non-custodial mothers, and stigma and considering the three cases as a whole, the reunification process is conceptualized in relation to the processes through which individuals are hypothesized to resist identity threats posed by social stigma and shows how mothers, over time, disengage self-esteem from an “intensive mothering ideology” and fashion new maternal roles that they can claim in the context of extreme economic impoverishment. Conclusions and implications. Study findings suggest the importance of acknowledging the time that personal change requires; normalizing maternal ambivalence; and advancing flexibility as to what “good” mothers should do.