Study On The Psychological Status Of Prisoners And Its Related Factors

Along with GDP per person continually climbing high, the degree of sociallegalization and civilization getting higher, the mental hygiene of prisoners becomesmore and more importance. According to academic reports, the proportion of mentalillness amounts to 10～20% in overseas prison. Research reports from AmericaMinistry of Justice in 1999 shows that 12.5% prisoners have mental problem and 7%have serious psychological illness. Also, domestic research indicates'prisoners haverelatively serious mental health problem. More than twenty prisons locate in ZhejiangProvince with an average of 100,000 prisoners in prison each year. Therefore, theirmental health status should be paid sufficient attention. Consequently, it is ourcommon concern of how to effectively prevent crimes and help the prisoners adapt tothe society after the term so as to decrease the criminal rate. The mental healthproblems of prisoners actually closely relate to a series of factors, which indicates thatwe should take the perspective of investigating their mental status and related factorsto guard against crimes. As a result, it is necessary to explore potential influencingelements and thus propose corresponding measures.This research probes into the present mental hygiene of prisoners and itsrelationship with mental health, self-acceptance, problem-solving and solutionsthrough investigations at scene and analysis. It provides the government with relevantinformation about the mental health condition of prisoners, facilitates effective precautions against crimes, and it also helps prisoners acclimatize themselves to thesociety after the term and eliminate the probability ofrecommitting crimes.Subjects and methodsThis study was based on 410 male prisoners in certain prison in Zhejiang usingrandom cluster sampling. Their median of age was 29 year olds, and quartile rangewas 10. The study adopted symptom self-comment measurement (SCL-90),comprehends society supporting questionnaire (PSSS), deals with style questionnaire(CSQ), selfhood admitting and personnel basic information questionnaire. Data wasinput into computer with Epidata3.1. There were 402 effective questionnaires exceptfor the unfinished or irregular ones.SPSS15.0 statistical software was used for this study's main statistic analysis.Hereinto, normal distribution's measure data was denoted as (?)±s, skeweddistribution as M (QR), and categorical data as constituent ratio. The reliability of themeasurement was evaluated by Cronbach'sαcoefficient. Spearman correlationanalysis or complete at random design with multiplicity comparative sum inspectmeans was adopted for one factor analysis. Besides, Path analysis implemented byAmos4.0 software was adopted for mental hygiene relevance factor analysis.Results1. The reliability and validity of SCL-90 measurementSCL-90 measurement's general Cronbach'sαcoefficient was 0.981, and amongall the genes, the hostile genes' was the lowest. Others' was above 0.800, with highreliability.To evaluate the validity of the table by the methods of sensitive analysis,correlation analysis and confirmatory factor analysis: find that all the titles of the tablecould be reserved without investigation and could be adapted for the prisoners.However, maybe because of the choice of study objects and the low content of sample,the table was not ideal for the structure validity of this study objects.2. The results of one factor analysis for each gene of mental hygieneSCL-90 measurement's total scores could be used as valuation index for prisoners' mental hygiene. Relevance result analysis demonstrated that mental hygienepositively correlated with self-accusation, fantasy, resignation, rationalize,somatization, obsessive-compulsion, human relations, depression, anxiety, hostility,phobia anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychosis, and the correlativity had statisticalsignificance.Suffers with different diseases had different mental hygiene statuses, and thediversity had statistical significance, too. (x~2=11.413, P=-0.022).3. Results of male prisoner's SCL-90 genes scores compared with normThe psychological problems with different degrees existed among prisoners. Thescores of 9 factors of SCL-90 were all higher in the male prisoners than in the norm ofthe country, which showed that the prisoners had somatization, obsessive-compulsion,sensitivity of human relations, emotional instability, depression, anxiety, ademoniaand nervous; bad sense and impulsive behavior; solitude and resignation;suspiciousness and bad sleep with different degrees.4. Results of path analysis on each factor for mind and body healthThe study showed that somatization had the most direct impact on mind and bodyhealth, (Path coefficient was 0.36), and next was depression (Path coefficient was0.34). Anxiety, obsessive-compulsion, psychosis and human relations also influenceda lot (Path coefficient were 0.28, 0.26, 0.24, 0.22), while hostility and paranoidideation did less. Economic status, self-acceptance, family support and social supportall had an indirect impact on mind and body health. The indirect effect of economicstatus was 0.012, and the self-acceptance, family support and social support were-0.830, -0.581, -0.261, respectively.Conclusions1. SCL-90 measurement has high degree of reliability, which indicates that thisresearch result is reliable. The result shows that subjects' structure validity isdefective, which may be due to the selection of subjects and small samples.2. Comparing with the national normal criterion, this research finds out prisoners have more mental problems than ordinary people, so they should be paid more attention interms of mental health.3. Relevance result analysis demonstrates that mental hygiene positively correlateswith self-accusation, fantasy, and resignation, rationalize, somatization,obsessive-compulsion, human relations, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobia anxiety,paranoid ideation and psychosis, and the correlativity has statistics meaning.4. The result indicates each factor has an effect on mental health through variousapproaches and there are correlations among them. Hereinto, somatization,obsessive-compulsion, human relations, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobia anxiety,paranoid ideation and psychosis have direct impact on mental health and economicstatus, self-acceptance, family support and social support exert indirect influence onmental health.