Social Support, Victimization, and Stress in a Women’s Prison: The Role of in-Prison Friendship for Reducing Perceptions of Stress

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics, incarcerated women unit 1 (N = 104).

	Mean, %	SD	Range
Stress level	1.76	0.71	1-3
Low (%)	40.38
Mid (%)	43.27
High (%)	16.35
Prison victimization (%)	27.88
Perceived social ties (sent ties)	11.72	13.17	0-69
Received social ties (received ties)	9.99	5.20	1-25
Age	46.79	12.21	24-77
Non-White (%)	40.38
Years in prison	10.37	9.88	1-36
Education	12.03	1.52	7-16
Pre-prison victimization (%)	55.77
Childhood victimization (%)	54.81

Note: SD = standard deviation.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics, by incarcerated women’s victimization status (N = 104).

	Victimized in prison (N = 28)			Not victimized in prison (N = 76)
	Mean (%)	SD	Range	Mean (%)	SD	Range	t-test*
Stress level	2.25	0.75	1–3	1.58	0.61	1–3	–4634***
Low (%)	17.86			48.68			2.931**
Mid (%)	39.29			44.74			.494
High (%)	42.86			6.58			–4.881***
Perceived social ties (sent ties)	15.75	13.38	3–51	10.24	12.87	0–69	–1.918*
Received social ties (received ties)	10.32	4.63	1–20	9.87	5.41	1–25	−.393
Age	45.83	12.12	24–68	47.16	12.31	24–77	0.561
Non-White (%)	39.29			40.79			.137
Years in prison	11.55	9.44	1–36	9.91	10.07	1–36	−.418
Education	12.41	1.27	10–16	11.88	1.59	7–16	–1.639
Pre-prison victimization (%)	78.57			47.37			–2.931**
Childhood victimization (%)	71.43			48.68			–2.091*

Note: SD = standard deviation.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Table 3. Ordinal logistic regression of stress levels, incarcerated women.

	Model 1		Model 2		Model 3		Model 4
	Beta (SE)	Odds ratio	Beta (SE)	Odds ratio	Beta (SE)	Odds ratio	Beta (SE)	Odds ratio
Perceived social ties (sent ties)	0.018 (0.016)	1.018	0.008 (0.018)	1.001	0.058 (0.143)	1.008	0.046* (0.020)	1.047
Received social ties (received ties)	−0.141** (0.045)	0.866	−0.145** (0.046)	0.865	−0.153** (0.047)	0.861	−0.168*** (0.042)	0.847
Prison Victimization	----	----	1.905*** (0.499)	6.710	1.717** (0.518)	5.805	4.190*** (0.876)	66.026
Age	−0.049* (0.019)	0.952	−0.047* (0.019)	0.954	−0.041* (0.020)	0.958	−0.040* (0.021)	0.960
Nonwhite	0.215 (0.429)	1.240	−0.136 (0.439)	1.145	0.190 (0.447)	1.131	0.043 (0.458)	1.044
Years in prison	0.056* (0.027)	1.057	0.058* (0.027)	1.060	0.055* (0.028)	1.057	0.070* (0.029)	1.073
Education	0.315* (0.150)	1.370	0.225 (0.150)	1.252	0.234 (0.145)	1.253	0.224 (0.157)	1.251
Pre-prison victimization	----	----	----	----	0.565 (0.442)	1.610	0.454 (0.445)	1.574
Childhood victimization	----	----	----	----	0.190 (0.409)	1.219	0.147 (0.422)	1.159
Perceived socialties^# In-prison victimization	----	----	----	----	----	----	−0.155*** (0.042)	0.857
Cut point 1	0.500 (1.903)		−0.279 (1.935)		0.226 (2.023)		0.534 (2.103)
Cut point 2	2.790 (1.918)		2.342 (1.943)		2.883 (2.038)		3.617 (2.133)

Note: SE = standard error.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

^# This is meant to signify an interaction.

Figure 1. Odds of being in a certain stress level across number of sent ties.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data used in this study is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37514.v2.