Benefits of Marriage on the Health of Men Aging in Prison
Abstract
For over a decade, there has been widespread debate concerning alternative practices and best methods for identifying and integrating low-cost health treatments and clinical interventions for an ever-growing older prison population. It is widely known that marriage provides many long-term health benefits including decreased susceptibility to communicable illness and chronic disease, reduced depressive affect, and improved longevity. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to determine how marriage is associated with the self-reported physical health status of older male prisoners. This study involved the use of previously collected data from N = 261 male prisoners, aged 45 and older, incarcerated across 10 state-managed facilities in Oklahoma. Inmates completed basic background information reflective of criminal history, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, Social Provisions Scale, Geriatric Depression Scale, and a 32 item self-report checklist. Descriptive statistics such as: means, standard deviations, and frequencies were used to analyze all relevant study variables. Chi square analyses were used to test prevalence of physical ailments and mental health symptoms across self-reported marital status categories. Correlations were computed for all variables used in this study. Finally, hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the association of demographic characteristics, criminal history, social support, depressive affect and forgiveness types, as well the combination variable marriage and support to self-reported physical health among older prisoners. Four significant findings emerged from the current study. First, the prevalence of various self-reported health conditions among aging male prisoners does differ by marital status. Second, age is associated with more self-reported health conditions. Third, the psychosocial factors, forgiveness of others and depressive affect were associated with the prevalence of health conditions. Fourth, the combination of marriage and support is negatively associated with self-reported health conditions. Results of this study could be used to influence public policy to implement marital education programs and services in order to provide preventative care as well as improve health in prison.
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- OSU Theses [15752]