Women Coping in Prison at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Virginia, 1999-2000 (ICPSR 3354)

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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

This study contributed to the growing interest in mental illness and impairment among incarcerated individuals. It focused on the larger spectrum of psychopathology that characterized the general, nonhospitalized population at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Virginia. The study was guided by three primary goals: (1) to explore the psychiatric symptoms, childhood and adult victimizations, and personality disorders that characterize a female prison population, (2) to explore the impact of these experiences and conditions on institutional adjustment and to validate the Prison Adjustment Questionnaire (PAQ), an instrument developed for use with men, on a female sample, and (3) to explore the relationship of these psychiatric conditions and past experiences to the violence perpetrated by female inmates in the prison and in the community.

Study Design View help for Study Design

The data in Part 1, Stage One Data, involved a prison-wide screening of 802 inmates between April 1999 and January 2000. Inmates were approached by a member of the research staff, who was accompanied by a correctional officer. The staff member described the purpose of the research, and inmates were invited to complete several self-enumerated questionnaires in the prison's educational center. They were informed that the instruments could be read to anyone who preferred that mode of administration. The questionnaires included a one-page demographic summary, the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), a measure of mental health symptom status, the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV) Personality Disorders Personality Screening Questionnaire (SCID II PQ), used to identify women with indices of Cluster B psychopathology who could be included in Stage Two of the study, the Prison Adjustment Questionnaire (PAQ), a questionnaire specifically designed for use with incarcerated populations that measures institutional functioning, the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS), the Prison Violence Inventory (PVI), an instrument designed for this study and used to assess whether participants were victims or perpetrators of violent acts since being incarcerated, the Victimization During Childhood and Before Incarceration Questionnaire (Vic-I), and the Parenting Stress and Attachment Questionnaire, an instrument designed for this study. Part 1 also includes data on criminal and institutional history that were obtained from the Virginia Department of Corrections. Part 2, SCID II Data (Stage Two), contains data on a 261-inmate subsample of the Part 1 sample. This subsample was administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID II), a semi-structured interview, between June 1999 and July 2000. The interviews were used to determine whether the inmates could be diagnosed with any of the ten DSM-IV personality disorders. A number of training sessions were held with the SCID II interviewers, which involved mock interviews and double-coding of ten inmate interviews by each interviewer. The presence of personality pathology was calculated using both dichotomous and continuous scores. The continuous scores reflected the number of criteria met for each disorder, and the diagnostic cut-off followed the traditional DSM-IV diagnostic procedures. Part 3, Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and HCR-20: Assessing Risk of Violence Data (Stage Two), contains data from a second interview with 119 members of the Part 2 subsample. Inmates who were administered the SCID II interview were contacted some months later and asked to participate in this interview, which included the PCL-R and the HCR-20. Extensive training was conducted with the interviewers on these instruments. Each interviewer coded eight taped interviews and double-coded an additional five interviews. Prior to each interview, interviewers reviewed a comprehensive file summary that was compiled by other members of the research team. Part 4, Personal Support Questionnaire Data (Stage Two), contains data on a 216-inmate subsample of the Part 1 sample. This subsample was administered the Personal Support Questionnaire, which gauged the amount of social support inmates were receiving, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), and the Beck Depression Index (BDI), and the PAQ was readministered. Part 5, Correctional Officer Data, consists of data on the behavior and attitudes of a 389-inmate subsample of the Part 1 sample. These data were collected through surveys of correctional officers between May and July 2000.

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Members of the subsample in Part 2, SCID II Data (Stage Two), were selected using scores on the SCID II Screen and BSI from Part 1, Stage One Data. To be included in this subsample, inmates had to be nonpsychotic. The subsample included an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group included randomly selected women whose SCID II PQ scores suggested a Cluster B personality disorder diagnosis: antisocial, histrionic, or narcissistic. The control group was designed to contain at least 50 nonpsychotic women who did not meet criteria for a Cluster B diagnosis.

Universe View help for Universe

Inmates at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women between April 1999 and July 2000.

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Data Source View help for Data Source

Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)

Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

Part 1, Stage One Data, demographic variables include age, race, number of times married, current marital status, number of children, last year of education completed, living arrangements before incarceration, and whether the respondent had been incarcerated before. Other variables include answers to the 53 items on the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and BSI scales for somatization, obsessive-compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobia, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism, answers to the 119 items on the SCID II PQ, number of criteria respondents met for different personality disorders on the SCID II PQ (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive), whether respondents could be diagnosed with any of these personality disorders, answers to the 22 items on the Prison Violence Inventory (PVI) and scores based on those responses, answers to the 11 questions on the Victimization Inventory (Vic-I) and scores based on those responses, answers to the 30 items on the Prison Adjustment Questionnaire (PAQ) and scores for internal, external, physical, distress, and conflict scales and other variables derived from PAQ responses, answers to the 30 items on the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS) and scores for nonplanning, motor, and cognitive scales. Other Part 1 variables are institutional misconduct, date of entering Fluvanna, date of first conviction, time served, type of convictions, and sentence length. Part 2, SCID II Data (Stage Two), variables include whether the inmate was part of the experiment or control group, results for each item in the interview in both dichotomous and continuous variables, and whether the inmate met the criteria for any personality disorders. Part 3, PCL-R and HCR-20 Data (Stage Two), variables include all of the variables in Part 2 (but only for the subsample covered by Part 3) and seven variables that provide scores for the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the HCR-20: Assessing Risk of Violence. Part 4, Personal Support Questionnaire Data (Stage Two), variables include answers to items on the Personal Support Questionnaire, answers to STAXI items, answers to BDI items, answers to PAQ items, scores for the STAXI, BDI, and PAQ, and inmate demographic information. Part 5, Correctional Officers Data, variables include inmate demographic information, answers to items rating adjustment of inmates to prison, problems with inmates' personal characteristics, behavior toward other inmates, and behavior toward staff, and answers to 90 items relating to inmates' general behavior and attitudes.

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

Not available.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

Scales include Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS), Beck Depression Index (BDI), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), HCR-20: Assessing Risk of Violence (Version 2), Parenting Stress and Attachment Questionnaire, Prison Adjustment Questionnaire (PAQ), Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II), SCID-II Personality Questionnaire, Victimization During Childhood and Before Incarceration (Vic-I), and Violence and Aggression During Incarceration Questionnaire (PVI).

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Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2003-12-11

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