Narrative Resilience Among Formerly Incarcerated Mothers

Abstract

Whereas much of the research on mothers in reentry has focused on the resistance strategies these mothers develop to combat the stigma they face, we explore how formerly incarcerated women’s narratives of motherhood reflect their resilience. Using in-depth interviews with 15 formerly incarcerated women, we describe participants’ “narrative resilience”—their focus on their strength and perseverance as they told stories of adversity. Narrative resilience facilitates a novel understanding of formerly incarcerated women’s construction of mothering—one that reveals how women incorporated experiences of structural disadvantage into their mothering identities by framing these experiences as evidence of their tenacity.