Bullying and social and emotional loneliness in a sample of adult male prisoners
Introduction
Bullying has proven a difficult concept to define in terms its exact characteristics (Smith & Brain, 2000). There is a developing consensus, however, that the term ‘bullying’ represents an all-encompassing term to describe a range of aggressive behaviours that can occur between individuals (Ireland, Archer & Power, 2007). Prison based researchers have opted for a broad definition of bullying:
Section snippets
Aim and rationale
There has been no research within prisons looking at the broader concept of loneliness among prisoners, to include social loneliness as well as emotional loneliness, despite a clear distinction between these two forms of loneliness in adult and adolescent non-detained samples (e.g. Russell et al., 1984, Qualter and Munn, 2002, Qualter and Munn, 2005). The present research aims to address the lack of research by exploring victimisation and social and emotional loneliness among adult male
Participants
In total, 350 questionnaires were distributed. Of these, 20 returned questionnaires were incomplete or defaced. In total 241 prisoners returned useable questionnaires, making the overall response rate 73%. The data was collated from two prisons, both ‘C’ (medium security1) prisons.
The average age was 32.3 years (s.d. 9.8). Eighty-five percent were of White ethnic origin, 7% Black,
Results
Results pertaining to the Direct and Indirect Prisoner Checklist — Revised will be presented first, followed by the social and emotional loneliness scale.
Discussion
The current study supported an association between prison victimisation and psychosocial adjustment in the form of social loneliness. Prisoners categorised as pure victims and bully/victims were characterised by increased levels of social loneliness in comparison to those not-involved. This was consistent with the prediction that victimisation would be associated with social, but not emotional, loneliness. The association between social loneliness and victimisation also appeared more globally
Acknowledgements
Thanks are extended to Christina Power for assisting with data collection, input and data screening analysis.
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