Abstract:

Objective   To investigate the female prisoners’ psychological health status, the coping style and the relevant affecting factors involved, providing a scientific basis for further psychological education. Methods   The 1500 female prisoners of Shandong Female Prison were investigated with the Coping Style Questionnaire (CSQ), Symptom Checklist  90(SCL-90)  and the General Status Questionnaire, with the relevant affecting factors analyzed.  Results   It was found that 1420 female criminals were analyzed, 45.7％ female prisoners had the psychological health problems, with 36.1％  being medium or severe. Scores of all the factors were higher in prisoners than those in the normal controls. The differences were statistically significant（t1-t11=2.623-7.015， P1-P11<0.01）. The psychological health status was positively correlative with factors like problem solving，illusion and help seeking(r=0.019-0.183, P<0.05), and it was negatively correlative with factors like self-reproach, retreat and rationalization(P<0.05).  The primary factors of influence female criminals’s psychological health status were the prison term and positively solution style （t=-2.729-4.510，P<0.05）.  Conclusion   The results indicate that the female criminals have obviously psychological problems. The psychological health status of female prisoners is  correlative closed with the coping style.

Key words: Female prisoners； Psychological health status； Coping style；  SCL-90