Gender Differences in Social Support Among Inmates

This paper presents the results from two independent studies investigating social support among correctional inmates focusing on the relationship between social support and psychological well-being. One study is based on males at a maximum security prison, while the other is based on females at a high medium security prison. The female inmates were found to have higher levels of social support than the sample of male inmates. It was also found that there is a relationship between social support and psychological well-being for the incarcerated women, but was not found to exist for the male inmates. These findings are consistent with the social support literature which identifies gender differences in non-institutionalized populations.