Salud mental en reclusos. Un análisis pre-post intervención psicosocial con grupo control de comparación

Abstract

Scientific literature indicates a high incidence of mental disorders in prisons. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate psychosocial health and self-regulation of inmates compared with a control group of non-inmates participants. In addition, we try to determine the incidence of the variable time spent in prison and to analyze the effect of training in social and communicative skills. The sample consisted of 20 males, 10 inmates (five with more than one year of sentence and five with less) and 10 participants with no criminal history. Participants were administered the health questionnaire GHQ-28 and the MAPA scale of self-regulation. Non-parametric Mann-Whitney (<em>U</em>) tests were used to calculate probabilities and Cramer's test (<em>V</em>) as an indicator of effect size. Results evidenced that reclusion was not necessarily associated to poorer health and self-regulation, that the influence of the length of the sentence on these two dimensions was small and that training in social and communicative skills did not produce significant effects on inmates’ health and self-regulation. To conclude, some general reflections as well as new proposals to improve future interventions are discussed