U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Social-Psychological Impact of a College Education on the Prison Inmate

NCJ Number
126604
Journal
Journal of Correctional Education Volume: 41 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1990) Pages: 140-146
Author(s)
E A Parker
Date Published
1990
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The study measures the degree to which education influences self-esteem, social competence, and self-efficacy. If inmates who participate in educational programming score higher on these variables than nonparticipants, it will then be possible to advance the argument that education increases the likelihood of post-prison success.
Abstract
Subjects of this study were 375 male inmates of the Eastern New York Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison. For the purpose of the study, the independent variable "education" was measured by two questions: (1) Before you came to prison for the first time, what was the highest grade in school that you had completed? and (2) What is the last year in school that you have now completed? To measure the central dependent variable of self-esteem, the study employed the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. The other related dependent variables, social competence and self-efficacy, were measured in reference to adaptive behavioral responses to problem situations. The five tables present the results of the variables studied. The results indicate that academic accomplishment is positively related to self-esteem and social competence, but unrelated to self-efficacy. However, since change in educational attainment was not a factor, it is the amount of education acquired and not whether it was obtained in prison which matters. A relationship was found between age, race, time served, and efficacy. Time served emerged as the strongest predictor, possibly confounding any relationship that might exist between education and efficacy. 5 tables and 51 references (Author abstract modified)

Publication Format
Article
Publication Type
Survey
Language
English
Country
United States of America