Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, New York, NY 10023, USA.
Gerontologist. 2011 Oct;51(5):675-86. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnr074. Epub 2011 Aug 17.
The aging prison population in the United States presents a significant public health challenge with high rates of trauma and mental health issues that the correctional system alone is ill-prepared to address. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of age, objective, and subjective measures of trauma and stressful life events and post-traumatic stress symptoms among older adults in prison.
Data were gathered from 334 prisoners (aged 55+) housed in the New Jersey Department of Corrections, as of September 2010. An anonymous self-report, self-administered survey was mailed to the total population of 1,000 prisoners aged 55 years and older. Objective and subjective trauma was measured using the Life Stressors Checklist-Revised (LSC-R), and post-traumatic stress symptoms were measured using the Civilian Version of the Post-traumatic Stress Scale.
Results of a path analysis revealed that past year subjective impressions of traumatic and stressful life events had a positive and significant relationship to current post-traumatic stress symptoms. Age was found to have a significant and inverse relationship to subjective traumatic and stressful life events. That is, younger participants reported higher levels of cumulative traumatic and stressful life events and past year subjective ratings of being bothered by these past events.
These findings have significance for interdisciplinary/interprofessional practice and appropriate institutional and community care, including reentry planning of older adults in the criminal justice system.
美国老龄化的监狱人口带来了重大的公共卫生挑战，其中创伤和心理健康问题的比例很高，而监狱系统本身对此准备不足。本研究的目的是研究年龄、创伤和压力性生活事件的客观和主观指标，以及监狱中老年人的创伤后应激症状之间的关系。
数据来自新泽西州惩教署的 334 名囚犯（年龄在 55 岁以上），截至 2010 年 9 月。一项匿名的自我报告、自我管理的调查邮寄给了年龄在 55 岁及以上的 1000 名囚犯中的所有人。使用生活应激源检查表修订版（LSC-R）测量客观和主观创伤，使用平民版创伤后应激量表测量创伤后应激症状。
路径分析的结果表明，过去一年主观感受到的创伤和压力性生活事件与当前的创伤后应激症状呈正相关且显著。年龄与主观创伤和压力性生活事件呈显著负相关。也就是说，年轻的参与者报告了更高水平的累积创伤和压力性生活事件，以及过去一年对这些过去事件感到困扰的主观评分。
这些发现对跨学科/跨专业实践以及适当的机构和社区护理具有意义，包括对刑事司法系统中老年人的重返社会规划。
