NCJ Number
101639
Journal
Journal of Offender Counseling, Services and Rehabilitation Volume: 10 Issue: 3 Dated: (Spring 1986) Pages: 25-49
Date Published
1986
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Data from 182 female inmates residing in the only women's correctional institution in Illinois (Dwight Correctional Facility) formed the basis of an analysis of female inmates' self-concepts, role adaptations during incarceration, and demographic characteristics.
Abstract
The sample represented 51 percent of the inmate population at the time of the data collection. The subjects completed the Tennessee Self Concept Scale in the dining hall, reception area, lounge areas, or individual rooms. The women generally had low self-concepts as measured by the scale. However, the institutional setting may have influenced their self-concepts. Self-concept varied directly with both education and perceived social role in the institutions. Inmates with more education had better self-concepts, indicating that educational attainment can function as an insulator against depreciating influences that impact on the self. Whites had higher levels of personality integration and lower levels of conflict in their self-concepts and lower levels of conflict in their self-concepts than did Hispanics and blacks. Inmates who played the ''butch' role had higher levels of self-satisfaction. Those with low commitment to the ''femme' role of femininity had lower scores on every dimension of self. High commitments to any of three adaptive roles to institutional life were also related to higher self-concept scores. The analysis concludes that the self is an emerging dynamic process, and both societal and institutional constraints influence women inmates and their behaviors. Figures, 34 references.