Roughly half of all men in prison are fathers of minor children. Despite the high prevalence of fatherhood in prisons, little is known about imprisoned fathers’ needs regarding fatherhood and family relationships. In prisons for men, limited attention is given to men’s roles as fathers and the difficulties they and their families encounter. Prison policies generally prioritise safety, security, and good order rather than promoting men’s identities as fathers and supporting families experiencing paternal imprisonment.
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Because dental health and oral pathology may affect forensic psychiatric patients' well being, it is important to be able to assess oral health related quality of life (OH-QoL) in these patients. Two studies were conducted among Dutch forensic psychiatric male patients to assess the psychometric properties and some potential predictors of the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) as a measure of OH-QoL. Study 1 involved 40 patients who completed the OHIP-14 before receiving professional dental care and were retested 3 months later. The internal consistency was good, the test-retest correlations were fair, and over the 3 months follow-up no significant changes in OH-QoL were observed. Study 2 consisted of 39 patients who completed an improved version of the original OHIP-14, as well as measures to validate of the OHIP. Dental anxiety and unhealthy dentition jointly explained 26.7% of the variance in OH-QoL, and the better patients performed their oral hygiene behavior, the better their OH-QoL. It is concluded that the Dutch OHIP-14 is a useful instrument, and that nurses, especially in forensic nursing, should pay particularly attention to dental anxiety when encouraging patients to visit OH professionals and to perform adequate oral hygiene self-care.
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Although father–child relationships (FCRs) are central to children’s experience of paternal imprisonment, few studies address this subject. A systematic review was conducted to synthesize the literature on paternal imprisonment and FCRs. Four academic databases were searched for peer-reviewed studies. Thirty studies were identified. It was found that FCRs most often deteriorate due to paternal imprisonment, but sometimes remain stable or change positively. Four key factors were found to influence FCRs: (a) the quality of preprison FCRs, (b) the frequency and experience of father–child contact during imprisonment, (c) the child’s primary caregivers’ role in facilitating father–child contact, and (d) prison barriers for maintaining FCRs during imprisonment. The interplay between these factors is essential for understanding FCRs in this context, which may explain children’s divergent experiences of paternal imprisonment. An integrated framework of FCRs in the context of paternal imprisonment is presented. Limitations and directions for research are discussed.
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