Social work

The aim of this article is to reveal the features of family relationship, style of parental bonding and relationship with family members of convicts. The tasks of the research: 1) to analyse the relationships experienced in families of convicts and the subjectively perceived style of parental bonding in their childhood; 2) to assess the relationships of convicts (men and women) with their families; 3) to compare the attachment styles of convicts analysing different close relationships (with parents, relatives, partner or a close friend). The research was carried out in Panevėžys Correctional Facility and Lukiškės Remand Prison – Closed Prison. In total, the research involved 63 subjects, out of whom 33 were men and 30 women. The female subjects were 18–64 years old, males – 18–45 years old. The following tools were used: Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker G. et al., 1997), Familial Relationship Quality Measure (Ryan & Willits, 2007), Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR – RS; Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000) and demographic questionnaire. The findings have showed that were no statistically significant differences with regard to gender were established assessing the subjectively perceived style of parental bonding, satisfaction with familial relationships and the attachment style in different close relationships. Both male and female subjects attributed the subjectively perceived upbringing style of a father to “overprotection”, that of a mother – to “care”. The attachment style of males characterised as “avoidance” is insignificantly higher than females, whereas the “anxiety” style of attachment in samples of males and females showed almost no differences. A positive relationship was established between the satisfaction with experienced familial relationships and the “caring” style of upbringing of both parents. Satisfaction with familial relationships positively correlates with the importance of communication with relatives, marital status and assessment of the current or last relationship maintained.
Keywords: Convicts, Family Relationship, Parental Bonding Style, Close Relationship.