Primary Submission Category: Life-course/developmental
Healing the Surveillance and Punishment through System Impacted Motherwork Across the Life Course
Authors: Katherine Maldonado
Presenting Author: Katherine Maldonado*
Public health research in child welfare pushes to identify child maltreatment and neglect from a comprehensive health perspective, and Sociologists have identified how neglect is linked to surveillance and punishment. This study examines how Latina mothers experience institutional violence and trauma via the child welfare system, and how the violence affects their mental health. I apply an intersectional qualitative approach; using life course theory and social determinants of health perspective. Study is based on photo-elicitation life history interviews with 75 Latina mothers from Southern California who have been involved with the child welfare system. This study advances understanding of the long reach of institutional violence by examining 1) post effects of child welfare system involvement for the mental health of mothers and 2) coping and healing mechanisms under child welfare surveillance. Findings reveal that multi-institutional involvement for criminalized poor mothers deepens mental health problems and requires motherwork strategies to intervene in family crises. I argue that to fully grasp mental health needs for system impacted families, social scientists must be aware of the multiple institutional barriers, stigmas, and cultural resistance strategies that develop over time. In an era of family separation, it is crucial that child welfare policy and health care providers provide effective approaches to the long-term mental health needs of criminalized mothers and children.