Fahmy Chantal, Testa Alexander
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, The University of Texas at San Antonio, 501 West Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., San Antonio, TX, 78207, USA.
Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 29;15(1):27716. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-11274-6.
Incarceration is associated with adverse physical and mental health that are often brought to light during reentry into the community, particularly in the immediate period following release. Social support, specifically from family members, has been identified as a key protective factor that may promote health and reintegration success among formerly incarcerated individuals. However, less is known about how specific types of family support-emotional and instrumental-relate to health outcomes following release from incarceration. The current study uses data from 517 individuals incarcerated in a large Texas prison, surveyed before and approximately one month after release, to examine the relationship between family support and self-rated physical and mental health. Logistic regression models revealed that strong emotional family support was significantly associated with better self-rated physical health and mental health one month post-release. Additionally, strong instrumental family support predicted better mental health but not physical health among respondents. These findings highlight the crucial role of emotional and instrumental familial support systems in fostering and reducing health disparities and promoting equity among justice-impacted populations.
监禁与不良身心健康相关，这些问题在重新融入社区期间，尤其是在获释后的短期内，往往会显现出来。社会支持，特别是来自家庭成员的支持，已被确定为一个关键的保护因素，它可能促进曾经被监禁者的健康和重新融入的成功。然而，对于特定类型的家庭支持——情感支持和工具性支持——如何与监禁释放后的健康结果相关，人们了解得较少。当前的研究使用了来自德克萨斯州一所大型监狱中517名被监禁者的数据，这些数据是在他们获释前和获释后大约一个月进行调查得到的，以检验家庭支持与自我评定的身心健康之间的关系。逻辑回归模型显示，强有力的情感家庭支持与释放后一个月更好的自我评定身体健康和心理健康显著相关。此外，强有力的工具性家庭支持预测受访者心理健康状况更好，但对身体健康状况没有影响。这些发现凸显了情感和工具性家庭支持系统在促进和减少健康差距以及促进受司法影响人群公平方面的关键作用。
