Family Violence and Depressive Symptomatology Among Incarcerated Women

• NCJ Number: 162748
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1995) Pages: 399-411
• Author(s): S L Martin; N U Cotten; D C Browne; B Kurz; E Robertson
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 13 pages
• Grant Number(s): MCJ-107
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Sixty female inmates of a maximum-security prison in North Carolina completed the Conflict Tactics Scale and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale to determine the potential association between witnessing parental violence as a child and later adult depressive symptoms.

Abstract

Results revealed that a majority of the participants reported that they had witnessed verbally aggressive or physically violent interactions among the adult members of their families. Seventy percent of these women suffered from clinically relevant levels of depressive symptomatology. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed that increasing levels of reasoning conflict resolution strategies used in the women's families of origin were associated with decreasing levels of depressive symptomatology of the women. In contrast, increasing levels of physically violent conflict resolution strategies were associated with increasing levels of depressive symptomatology. Tables and 50 references (Author abstract modified)