NCJ Number
213963
Journal
Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: 2006 Pages: 43-59
Date Published
2006
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This New Zealand study examined whether prisoners' intentions to seek help for a personal-emotional problem, including suicidal feelings, could be predicted based on variables from the Theory of Planned Behavior, supplemented by measures of emotional distress, prior contact with a psychologist, and demographic variables.
Abstract
According to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), intentions (a person's aim or plan to act) are determined by a person's attitude toward the behavior, social pressures (subjective norms) to perform the behavior, and perceived control over performing the behavior. The study found that, on average, prison inmates with higher intentions to seek help from a prison psychologist had a more positive attitude toward seeking psychological help, were more responsive to pressures from others to seek psychological help, and perceived themselves as having more control over accessing prison psychologists. Attitudes had the strongest association with intentions to seek help. Inmates with higher help-seeking intentions differed from other inmates according to specific beliefs about the help-seeking process. Prison inmates' prior experience of receiving services from a psychologist in prison apparently influenced their future help-seeking efforts negatively, particularly for suicidal feelings; however, prior contact with psychologists outside prison was not associated with lower intentions to seek help. Also, older inmates and those with more years of education tended to have higher intentions to seek psychological help. The findings suggest that inmates' use of prison mental health services could be improved by addressing attitudinal barriers to seeking services. Study participants were male inmates (n=527) from 6 New Zealand prisons. They completed a questionnaire that measured attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, perceived behavioral control, the influence of other persons on help-seeking, emotional distress, prior help, and help-seeking intentions. 5 tables and 43 references