NCJ Number
187988
Journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2001 Pages: 29-47
Date Published
February 2001
Length
19 pages
Annotation
A 2-stage prospective study of 88 incarcerated young male offenders at the Castington Young Offenders Institution in Northumberland, England, sought to assess the extent to which and how anxiety and depression could be predicted in this population.
Abstract
The research took place over a 3-month period. The participants had an average age of 19.53 at the first stage of the study. Information came from newly created scales on stress and coping and first-stage scores on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory, the Emotion Control Questionnaire, and the Copying Styles Questionnaire regressed on second-stages scores on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results revealed that scores on the new stress questionnaire, aggression control, and an interaction of stress scores with rational coping accounted for the HADS anxiety scores. Stress scores, EPQ Extraversion, and an interaction of stress, EPW Extraversion, and EQP Liar scores accounted for depression scores. In addition, a three-component interaction term comprising stress, coping, and EPQ psychoticism scores predicted both anxiety and depression. The analysis concludes that the findings have important repercussions for the psychological wellbeing of incarcerated young offenders, some of whom are vulnerable and possibly prone to parasuicidal behavior. Findings suggest that, in mitigating the psychological effects of detention, fundamental changes in the young offender culture are preferable to encouraging coping behavior not conductive with rehabilitation. Figures, tables, and 62 references (Author abstract modified)