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This article proposes a new conceptual framework, the Well-Being Development Model (WBDM), to support the development, implementation, and assessment of innovative reentry interventions des...

Purpose This study aims to examine steps taken by correctional staff to prevent COVID-19 from spreading through correctional facilities and explores strategies used by incarcerated individuals to reduce their own risk of contracting COVID-19 during confinement. Design/methodology/approach Data were drawn from interviews with 327 individuals incarcerated after March 16, 2020, in Midwest1, Midwest2 and Southeast state using a questionnaire developed for this purpose. All study participants were actively involved in a randomized controlled trial of a behavioral health reentry intervention and the human subjects board approved the supplement of this study on COVID-19; interviews were conducted from April 15 to November 19, 2020. Findings Overall, 9.89% of participants contracted COVID-19. Most (68.50%) individuals learned about COVID-19 from television compared to official correctional facility announcements (32.42%). Participants wore face masks (85.02%), washed hands (84.40%) and practiced physical distancing when possible (66.36%). Participants reported that facilities suspended visitation (89.60%) and volunteers (82.57%), provided face masks (83.18%), sanitized (68.20%), conducted temperature checks (55.35%) and released individuals early (7.34%). Social implications Longitudinal observational study on the implementation and effectiveness of public health guidelines in prisons and jails may identify best practices for containing the infectious disease. Maximizing transparent communications, as well as COVID-19 prevention and mitigation efforts, are critical to achieving universal best practices for virus containment and amplifying public health. Originality/value Data presented indicate the early adoption of many Centers for Disease Control guidelines by individuals and correctional facilities, although broad variation existed. Data support the identification of containment strategies for feasible implementation in a range of correctional spaces.

SummaryAn initial validation of the Child Welfare Provider Stigma Inventory is reported. The Child Welfare Provider Stigma Inventory assesses stigmas held by child welfare professionals toward clients on three domains: Attitudes, Behavior, and Coworker Influence.MethodsInitial validation of the Child Welfare Provider Stigma Inventory was conducted with a sample of 360 child welfare professionals in Florida. Scale conceptualization and development, content validation, and construct validation measures are discussed.FindingsPreliminary psychometrics indicated good model fit for a three factor multidimensional scale. Racial differences emerged and subgroup models were also validated. Reliabilities were moderate to strong; the global stratified α was .89. Evidence of construct validity supported hypotheses about the accuracy of underlying constructs.ConclusionsThe Child Welfare Provider Stigma Inventory appears to be a reliable and valid measure of provider stigma.ApplicationsThe Child Welfare Provider Stigma Inventory may be useful for agency climate assessment and quality improvement initiatives, as well as for in-service training and social work education.

Background Little is known about how incarcerated mothers make meaning of their parenting role and relationship with their children prior to incarceration and during custody. The aims of this project were to explore the experiences of mothering prior to incarceration and during custody using the Gendered Pathways Perspective and to examine how mothering intersects with incarcerated women’s health and health outcomes to facilitate prevention and intervention strategies. This secondary data analysis used qualitative methods and grounded theory to identify themes related to mothering from 41 incarcerated mothers. Analyses were conducted by two independent coders, each of whom interviewed women as part of the primary study. Results Identified themes highlight how mothers sacrificed their own health and wellness in order to parent their children, sometimes foregoing substance use disorder treatment because they had no childcare options. Additionally, incarcerated mothers described the psychological distress of family separation and asked for additional parenting programs to increase mother-child connection. Finally, mothers suggested that capitalizing on the mothering role might be a potent mechanism for change, especially as related to substance use disorder treatment. Conclusions Research on incarcerated parents often focuses on their children, which obscures incarcerated mothers’ needs related to health and wellness. The prison environment offers few opportunities to foster mother-child connection; most mothers never receive even one visit from their children. Incarcerated mothers contextually framed crime as protecting and providing for children and identified community-based and in-prison service gaps. Recommendations include infusing mothering and caretaking responsibilities into the sentencing process and exploring the intersection of race, gender, class, and mothering status on criminalized behavior. Additionally, there is an urgent need to expand the availability of community-based and in-prison programs that allow women to address health concerns while mothering their children.

People of color are disproportionately incarcerated and reincarcerated after release. When compared to women, men of all races report higher rates of recidivism. However, minimal research examines ...

Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of incarcerated women differentiated by experiences of child abuse and intimate partner violence victimization. The abuse subscales of the Child...

Although women’s rates of incarceration have increased dramatically, the criminal justice system does not meet women’s unique needs. This article used qualitative methods to describe the responses ...

Background Youth who are or have been in foster care (foster youth) are at higher risk for adverse outcomes in early adulthood. As the importance and complexity of victimization experiences, including types, timing, and perpetrators, is better understood it is unclear whether or to what extent the research on foster youth assesses polyvictimization. Because many types of victimization, such as community violence, are under-reported or absent in the administrative data typically used for research with foster care populations, self-reports of victimization experiences are necessary to comprehensively assess polyvictimization. Polyvictimization places youth at increased risk for adverse outcomes, and yet is not widely measured in the foster youth population. This is likely in part due to the wide-use of administrative reports to assess maltreatment among research on foster youth which does not capture a full range of victimization experiences. Objective The aim of the present study was to systematically review and evaluate the measurement of self-reported polyvictimization with foster youth samples. Methods A search in Academic Search Premier, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Social Work Abstracts, SociINDEX, and Scopus was conducted. Articles included peer-reviewed, quantitative research studies that measured self-reported victimization (including violence exposure and/or maltreatment) with foster youth samples between 1997−2017. In total, 1887 studies were identified and reviewed by two raters and of those 18 met the study criteria. Results Almost all of the included studies (n = 16) measured multiple types of victimization through self-report. The most common types of victimization measured were sexual abuse (n = 15), physical abuse (n = 14), and physical neglect (n = 11). Half of studies (n = 9) measured at least one non-maltreatment victimization experience, such as community violence exposure and/or dating violence. However, included studies rarely measured other aspects of victimization, such as timing of exposure (e.g., pre or during foster care), which research has identified as relevant to outcomes. Conclusions This is the first systematic review to assess the measurement of self-reported polyvictimization in research with current or former foster youth. Given the limited comprehensive assessment of victimization, these findings support strong recommendations for developing or adapting polyvictimization measures specifically for foster youth so that the measures include child welfare-specific factors such as the timing and perpetration of victimization experiences.

It is essential to identify valid and reliable measurement strategies to enhance accurate, comprehensive, and meaningful health assessment and evaluation to improve health outcomes among justice-involved and incarcerated populations. This article identifies and describes three primary challenges related to measurement in correctional health care and makes four recommendations for enhanced measurement rigor from a social justice perspective. First, incorporate incarcerated persons into the measurement research process; second, enhance psychometric investigation in correctional health settings; third, increase the collection of individual-level, health-related data from incarcerated populations; and fourth, create and maintain centralized databases and comprehensive codebooks to promote data sharing.

The article evaluates the effectiveness of a 5-year social norms sexual violence prevention marketing campaign designed specifically for men on a large public university in the Southeastern United States. From 2010 through 2014, 4,158 men were asked about their self-reported attitudes, beliefs, and behavior related to sexual violence as well as their perception of their peers’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Using social norms theory, a social norms marketing campaign was developed to target highly discrepant attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Results indicate that both self-reported and perception of peer attitudes and beliefs improved over time, and the discrepancy between the two reduced over time. In addition, the frequency of positive and prosocial self-reported behavior increased on five of the six indicators. This study represents a significant contribution to the literature, as it uses 5 years of data and includes behavioral indicators to add evidence for the efficacy of targeting misperceptions of social norms as a mechanism to engage men in gender-based violence prevention.

Although much is known about the death penalty attitudes of U.S. adults, the attitudes of social workers are less clear. The current study assesses the death penalty attitudes of 406 social work students at a southern university. Support was measured in isolation, in conjunction with alternative sentencing structures, and using vignettes to provide mitigating factors about the defendant and the crime. Social work students reported low levels of death penalty support (32%), which decreased when alternative sentences were provided (11%). Death penalty support was lowest on case vignettes (range: 0–16%). Implications for social work and future research directions are discussed.

Studies indicate that as many as 30%–56% of incarcerated men have perpetrated domestic violence, and that factors related to domestic violence perpetration are associated with long-term recidivism after release. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of an in-prison domestic violence treatment program called STOP and Change Direction to increase positive attitudes toward women, decrease levels of criminal thinking, and reduce general recidivism rates for program completers. Two research designs are used: a single-group pretest–posttest design to assess the attitude-related outcomes, and a quasiexperimental design with a comparison group created using propensity score matching to assess the impact of program participation on reincarceration. Paired samples t tests revealed significant increases in positive attitudes toward women and decreases in criminal thinking. Binary logistic regressions revealed no significant differences in the 5- and 7-year reincarceration rates, although examination of the 9...

The current study uses the dose–response model to examine the relationships between childhood victimization events and subsequent depression, symptoms of psychosis, and substance misuse in a sample of 230 randomly selected incarcerated women in the United States. Results on the frequency of victimization were mixed. In this sample, both frequency of physical abuse and frequency of sexual abuse significantly predicted current symptoms of psychosis, but only frequency of physical abuse significantly predicted substance misuse. Incarcerated women who experienced multivictimization were 5.7 times as likely to report depression, 4.2 times as likely to report current symptoms of psychosis, and 3.8 times as likely to meet criteria for a substance use disorder. Results indicate that adjusting prison-based interventions to address multivictimization may improve outcomes and reduce recidivism among this population.

Objective: To conduct an initial validation of the mental health provider stigma inventory (MHPSI). The MHPSI assesses stigma within the service provider–client relationship on three domains—namely, attitudes, behaviors, and coworker influence. Methods: Initial validation of the MHPSI was conducted with a sample of 212 mental health employees and graduate student counseling interns. Scale conceptualization and development, content validation, and construct validation measures are discussed. Results: Preliminary psychometrics indicated good model fit for a three-factor multidimensional scale. Reliabilities were strong (coefficient αs ranged from .83 to .93) and the global stratified α was .95. Evidence of construct validity supported the hypotheses about the accuracy of underlying constructs. Conclusions: The MHPSI appears to be a reliable and valid measure of mental health provider stigma. As social workers comprise the front lines of mental health service provision, the MHPSI may be a valuable tool for guiding agency trainings and social work education.

Postpartum psychosis (PPP) is a serious mental health issue associated with maternal suicide and infanticide. Although a growing research base suggests that childhood abuse is predictive of psychosis, bipolar disorder, and postpartum depression, the link between abuse and PPP is less clear. Currently, prevention and treatment strategies are pharmacological and require hospitalization once symptoms arise. Unfortunately, these strategies are not ideal for affected women and their infants. Testing the relationship between experiences of childhood abuse and PPP may reveal abuse variables to be both statistically and clinically meaningful predictors of the disorder. A dose–response model suggests that women who report more severe abuse or multivictimization will be more likely to develop PPP. The authors suggest trauma screening in psychiatric, obstetrical, and community practice settings to identify women at risk for PPP and advocate for the addition of gender-responsive and trauma-focused psychotherapy to pharmacological interventions for this population.

Objective: To use meta-analytic techniques to evaluating the effectiveness of parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) at reducing future physical abuse among physically abusive families. Methods: A systematic search identified six eligible studies. Outcomes of interest were physical abuse recurrence, child abuse potential, and parenting stress. Results: Parents receiving PCIT had significantly fewer physical abuse recurrences and significantly greater reductions on the Parenting Stress Index than parents in comparison groups. Reductions in child abuse potential were nonsignificant, although 95% confidence intervals suggest clinically meaningful treatment effects. The studies examining physical abuse recurrence had a medium treatment effect ( g = 0.52), while results from pooled effect size estimates for child abuse potential ( g = 0.31) and parenting stress ( g = 0.35) were small. Conclusions: PCIT appears to be effective at reducing physical abuse recurrence and parenting stress for physically abusive families, with the largest treatment effects seen on long-term physical abuse recurrence. Applications to social work practice are discussed.

In a study to assess law enforcement officers’ perceptions of rape and rape victims, researchers asked 149 law enforcement officers to respond to surveys which included a definition of rape measure, an unfounded rape claims measure, and the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale-Revised (RMA-R) measure. Although most officers scored low on the RMA-R—indicating that they did not adhere to myths about rape—most officers also responded with incomplete definitions of rape and inaccurate estimates of the number of false rape claims. Multivariate analyses indicated that officers’ open-ended responses did not predict their scores on the RMA-R scale. It is argued that the RMA-R alone does not accurately measure officers’ understanding of rape. Officers need ongoing training on the legal elements of the crime, the necessity of sensitivity with victims, and research-based statistics on the prevalence of rape.

This study examines the relationship between childhood victimization and self-reported current symptoms of psychosis in an incarcerated female population in the United States. Participants are 159 randomly selected women incarcerated in two North Carolina state prisons. Participants completed a battery of self-report measures to assess childhood victimization and current and lifetime experience of audio/visual hallucinations and delusions. In accordance with the dose–response model, we hypothesized a predictive relationship between severity, frequency, and type of victimization and psychosis for this sample of women prisoners. Results indicate that women who experienced multi-victimization were 2.4 times more likely to report current symptoms of psychosis than other women prisoners who experienced only physical or sexual victimization in childhood. Likewise, a one-unit increase in frequency of childhood victimization was associated with a 3.2 % increased likelihood of having reported symptoms of current psychosis. These results provide support for the dose–response model hypothesis that multi-victimization is an important predictor of psychosis for the women prisoner population. Results indicate that adjusting prison-based mental health services to address the relationship of childhood victimization and symptoms of psychosis may be a key factor in improving outcomes among this population.