Relationships between hope and mental health among women in prison

Previous research with non-offenders has linked a higher dispositional cognition of hope to lower levels of psychological symptoms and demonstrated mediating effects of attentional biases on the relationship between hope and psychological symptoms, but this has not been explored among offenders.

Our aim was to investigate associations between a dispositional cognition of hope and habitual attentional processing styles and distress among women in prison. We hypothesised that higher levels of hope would be associated with more attention to positive information and less to negative information in the surroundings and, in turn, lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in women in prison.

In a cross-sectional study, we recruited consenting women serving a prison sentence who had been referred to psychological services. Participants completed a set of self-rating inventories individually, which scaled their levels of hope, attention to positive and negative information and symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression.

Two hundred and three women participated. Their average age was 35.68 years (range 21-67 years). Over half were recidivists (170, 58%). Overall, the higher the level of hope they had, the lower were the ratings of their psychological symptoms. Positive attentional bias was associated with higher hope and lower psychological distress. In contrast, negative attentional bias was related to lower hope and higher psychological distress ratings. In statistical models, both attentional biases appeared to be partial mediators of the relationship between hope and psychological distress.

Our findings among women in prison were consistent with those in non-forensic populations and not previously studied among prisoners. They suggest that it would be worth evaluating interventions to modify attentional styles as they may have value in increasing hope and reducing psychological symptoms and perhaps also harmful behaviours in this vulnerable population.