Social Interaction for Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Paper

Abstract

Although social incorporation is associated with mental well-being in a population, this affiliation needs exploration for people curbed in total institutions. Prisons, in particular, are a representation of exceptional conditions with the potential to change the customary correlation between mental health and social ties. This paper surveys the role of peer social relations upheld by jail prisoners based on self-reported behaviors in the targeted prison unit. Using different methodologies, this study aims to establish whether social interactions can positively or negatively affect the mental health of individuals. Several studies have constantly established that favorable exchange in a unique social environment impacts mental health and well-being. Therefore, this research proposal aims to review previous studies and conduct research on the effects of social integration on mental health and general well-being in a criminal justice system. Isolation and social ties in prison settings are shown to increase mental health disorders among prisoners.

Introduction

The sharp rise in the rates of imprisonment in America over the previous four decades has encouraged studies focused on life imprisonment’s negative social concerns. This research aims to evaluate how social interaction affects mental health and well-being in criminal justice. Owing to the de-institutionalization of United States mental well-being hospitals over the past fifty years, the jail system has observed a rise in the quantity of those having mental disorders with studies suggesting that there are ten times more persons in jail or prison having mental health disorders compared to those admitted in mental hospitals.

Significantly, every assessment of imprisonment and its relationship to health relationship has typically depended on comprehensive examinations to compare the mental wellbeing of short-time prisoners and those sentenced to life imprisonment. Generally, the lack of social interaction has been closely linked to stress-related disorders. However, Haney (2018) shows that these undesirable effects vary depending on prison subgroups. Therefore, the relationship amid alienation/isolation with mental health disorder is well recognized in general health works, with the vigorous relation between social support, social integration, and individual health (Clear et al. 2017). Because of limited data, mostly omitted from imprisonment and health studies are the deficiency related to life behind bars, including isolation, alienation, and high stress levels.

Finally, imprisoned individuals’ chances to control their access to anticipated physical and mental health resources and their environment are very narrow. Although, these features enable inmates to shape their social and health relationships, the likely hood of retreating the positive relationship between health and social incorporation found in several social backgrounds (Kreager et al. 2017). Determination of whether it is healthier for inmates to be friends with each other or to be isolated has consequences not simply for the social philosophy but correspondingly to the prison policy and prisoners’ reintegration efforts.

Literature review

An increasing research body has verified that feeble social ties and low-slung social integration are related to mental and physical health issues. Haynie et al. (2018) show that few relationships that are of poor quality are associated with cardiovascular illness, depression, impaired immunity, and depression. Conversely, robust social associations may reduce stress physiological response, hence social exclusion and isolation are linked strongly to poor health results in a general population as well as untimely death, according to Haney (2018). These researchers agree that a positive association of health and social incorporation is definitely extended to the inmate groups. Just as family and friends maintain ties outside prison, for example through visitation is connected to enhanced prisoners’ well-being and mental health.

Notably, the mental and physical health significances of weak or strong peer relationships may be increased in the prison environment. Sugie and Turney (2017) found that mental health deteriorates in prison settings since conservative ties to friends and family members are not allowed. These results prove that the deprivation of social connections is strongly related to the high prevalence of mental disorders.

Additionally, researchers recognize that the social integration health benefits may differ by context. According to Clear et al. (2017), more or less relationships may jeopardize health and social integration. In settings such as prisons, where inmates are unwillingly brought together with other peers who are high risk, social integration promotes relatively risky healthier behavior through mechanisms of peer influence, as shown by Haney (2018). Evidently, prisoners have worse mental and physical health compared to the non-imprisoned, and some negative behavior influences may worsen this condition

The influence of social ties in the prison setting has also been evaluated. Sugie and Turney (2017) found that inmates with lesser equal finish may have a better alteration and the resulting health than individuals who develop strong social ties to other prisoners. Certainly, outcomes from prior two studies that researched the inmate social integration in association with mental health discovered little confirmations to support health-promoting influences of social integration in jail. The first research by Haynie et al. (2018), found that the lack of social support in a prison setup, is not connected to lower inmates’ depression and anxiety levels. However, these findings may have a gender perspective linking alienation to different mental conditions among male and female prisoners.

In reference to the role of prison relationships in facilitating better mental conditions, a negative correlation has been found. The research on male inmates by Leonardi et al. (2017), showed that social integration of peers was not connected to the better mental health of the inmates. Moreover, inmates who placed their trust on fellow prisoners have a greater possibility of distress compared to detainees without believing fellow inmates (Kreager and Kruttschnitt 2018). Hence a conclusion that the relationship amid mental health and general well-being with peer integration might reverse confinement environment. Since, trust placed in inmates who are also crime convicts supports health-risk behaviors it results to deteriorating mental health.

Inmate Subgroups and Health

Most researchers’ discussions are focused on the relationship between social integration and inmate mental health. Nevertheless, Kreager and Kruttschnitt (2018) argue that attitudes and health conduct differ transversely across groups of prisoners so that the relationship between health and sociality is dependent on the content and structure of peer clusters. Dependable with differential and subcultural social organization theories of crime, prominent sociologists suggest that prison society has multiple, mostly competing clusters exhibiting different value orientations, demographics, and behavior.

Inmate subgrouping may result in repressive group customs which will eventually extend to mental health and general well-being. According to Anon (2017), an inflow of drug dealers or offenders complementing America’s fight on drug abuse may result in amplified marginalization and clustering of substance users in the States’ prisons. Clear et al. (2017) confirm that these subgroups will eventually be characterized via other drug use correlated health challenges like communicable illnesses. Similarly, for inmates’ clusters organized about health-promoting initiatives, like religious exercise or involvement, may progress mental health and physical well-being (Haynie et al. 2018). Indeed, ethnographic studies highlight correlations with spiritual peers as significant in maintaining and establishing spiritual distinctiveness and coping with imprisonment pain.

This study surveys how social interactions affect mental health and general well-being based on criminal justice. As a result, it promotes an understanding of how inmate clusters are related to a set of demographic, conduct, and mental health attributes, as advanced by Karim et al. (2019). Different from previous researches, this study approaches the presence of clusters inductively via a social network method, similar to that applied by Sharma, Madaan, and Petty (2020). The approach identifies clusters through consideration of patterns of links among inmates rather than a priori tasks for prisoners in groups based on common attributes.

Methodology

Sample

This study will use data in the second level of security custody, that is; the minimum security component of a medium men’s prison. All unit prisoners will be requested to participate in a self-report assessment which will be administered in a face-to-face interview for about an hour using an online interviewing channel. The selected eligible unit inmates will then take part in the survey as long as they manage to provide well-versed consent. The survey lasts approximately three weeks. In addition to that, it is also required that prisoners with extreme mental health disorders be exempted from participating in the survey.

Secondly, inmates will be asked to account on numerous health-related perceptions and behaviors. Smoker will identify those who will answer affirmatively to the question “Do you smoke currently?” expected answer is a yes or no. Therefore, mental health grades will be weighed by means of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), which consists of 20 items to measure how repeatedly respondents having depression symptoms answer questions.

Eventually, a summary is created to measure the inmates’ mental health by combining the results from all tested health variables into a combined score depending on each variable score. For example, for the above smoker variable, inmates will be assigned marks of 1 or 0 depending on the response they will give and depending on the number of questions, a cumulative score will be accorded. For instance, if the variable questions are five then the total highest cumulative score will be five. Hence the higher values will reveal a well self-reported health result.

Social network information will be collected by asking such questions as ‘Who do you get along with in the unit?’ Social integration will be operationalized using in-degree, which will assess inmates’ social circles. Therefore, analyses will comprise of numerous control variables, that is requests will be made to access the prisoner’s records such as the type of cities and states they were living before conviction, their years of completed schooling, their religion, race or ethnicity which will be based on self-records at the time of the arrest. Additionally, age is also a constant measure centered on the date of birth.

Analytic Strategy

To examine the connotation between inmate mental health and social integration, a multi-step technique will be adopted. This will begin by presentation of numerous simple procedures of the relations of health and the social integration. Hence, bivariate correlations examination between health measures and in-degree will be done, to evaluate whether inmates who get along show similar behaviors health-wise then the two results of autocorrelation in network is calculated. Given that both results have the advantage of homophily measurement that is relative to arbitrary chance prospects where relationships are randomly assigned.

Secondly, this study will examine the same network-health link, controlled for a substitute technique that will spuriously induce such associations. Specifically, this study will use an exponentially random graph model, where the predicted health measures will exhibit a linking between two prisoners. Therefore, the ERGM treats dyad effectively as a unit of analysis hence the ability for an individual attributes and dyadic characteristics to be controlled (Anon 2017). Thus this paper will examine the association amid social network and mental health and well-being while controlling numerous factors which can create such patterns.

Discussion

The results of this study will prove the assertions made in current literature on the negative impacts of isolation on mental health. The CES-D scale will indicate the prevalence of depression among inmates. On a scale of 1-60, 75% of the inmates will record a score of 16 and above. This shows that three-quarters of inmates suffer from depression while a quarter show less stress-related disorders. In-degree results show that, based on the inmates’ responses, those who are involved in social ties within the prison setup are mentally healthier than those who live in isolation.

To this point, the study should measure directly the prisoners’ peer relationship structure together with integration-health connotation. Most inmates will confirm that they get along with those having similar behavior patterns. At least 80% of inmates will confirm having been positively or negatively influenced by their friends within the prison environment. Male respondents will show a stronger link between depression and isolation than female inmates. The responses are expected to prove the differential impact of social interactions on mental health and wellbeing in relation to gender.

However, it is beyond this research to elucidate the origin of the analyzed prison systems. The majority of the research papers on prison society have focused on whether prison endogenous deficiencies or the inmate exogenous characteristics are crucial for establishing the prison structure and culture. Therefore, the evidence from this research will be interpreted whether to support both arguments or not. These findings are expected to enable individuals to delve into the finest details of how social interactions impact the mental health and well-being of inmates in criminal justice.

Conclusion

Concrete scientific proof demonstrates that social interactions influence a wide range of health conclusions, which includes physical health, mental health, well-being, and mortality risks. Sociologists have frolicked a significant role in establishing how all this relates and in the discovery of the social variations at the population level and context, which in this case is the criminal justice system. This research’s approach of sociology offers a scientific policy to recommend how lawmakers may upsurge population health through the promotion and protection of the people’s social relationships.

References

Anon. 2017. “Dyadic Analysis Using Grid Sequence Methods: Inter-Dyad Differences In Intra-Dyad Dynamics.” The Gerontologist 56(Suppl_3):210-210.

Clear, Todd R, Michael Dean Reisig, Carolyn Turpin-Petrosino, and George F Cole. 2017. American Corrections in Brief.

Haney, Craig. 2018. “Restricting the Use of Solitary Confinement.” Annual Review of Criminology 1(1):285–310.

Haynie, Dana L., Corey Whichard, Derek A. Kreager, David R. Schaefer, and Sara Wakefield. 2018. “Social Networks and Health in a Prison Unit.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 59(3):317-317.

Karim, Fazida, Azeezat Oyewande, Lamis F Abdalla, Reem Chaudhry Ehsanullah, and Safeera Khan. 2019. “Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review.” Cureus, 12(6)

Kreager, Derek A., and Candace Kruttschnitt. 2018. “Inmate Society in the Era of Mass Incarceration.” Annual Review of Criminology 1(1):261–83.

Kreager, Derek A., Jacob T. N. Young, Dana L. Haynie, Martin Bouchard, David R. Schaefer, and Gary Zajac. 2017. “Where ‘Old Heads’ Prevail: Inmate Hierarchy in a Men’s Prison Unit.” American Sociological Review 82(4):685–718.

Leonardi, Rebecca, Hannah Buchanan-Smith, Gill McIvor, and Sarah-Jane Vick. 2017. ““You Think You’re Helping Them, But They’re Helping You Too”: Experiences of Scottish Male Young Offenders Participating in a Dog Training Program.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 14(8):945.

Sharma, Ashish, Vishal Madaan, and Frederick D. Petty. 2020. “Exercise For Mental Health.” Journal of clinical psychiatry, 8(2), 106-107.

Sugie, Naomi F., and Kristin Turney. 2017. “Beyond Incarceration: Criminal Justice Contact and Mental Health.” American Sociological Review 82(4):719-743.