ABSTRACT
Women who are in residential drug treatment with their children reside in a highly-structured social environment. Assuming an active parenting role while participating in treatment can be demanding. The challenge can be exacerbated by the women’s frequent insufficient and/or inadequate parenting skills (Daghastani, 1988; Greenleaf, 1989), negative perceptions of their parenting role by others (Finkelstein, 1994; Smyth & Miller, 1997), and their shame-filled, guilt-ridden, negative parental self (Finkelstein, 1994; Sterk-Eifson, 1998; VanBremen & Chasnoff, 1994). The negative parental self in conjunction with the negative parenting experience impacts the substance-abusing mothers’ perception of themselves and their relationship with their children and others. Parental self-concept, necessary for effective parenting, consists of a combination of experiences from one’s own childhood, as well as current experiences with parenting (Benedek, 1956, 1959, 1970; Davis, 1990; Demick, Bursik & Diabiase, 1993). In the case of women in residential drug treatment with their children, their current parenting experiences take place within the social environment of a mother-child drug treatment facility.
