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The Relationship Between Childhood Abuse and Psychosis for Women Prisoners: Assessing the Importance of Frequency and Type of Victimization

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Abstract

This study examines the relationship between childhood victimization and self-reported current symptoms of psychosis in an incarcerated female population in the United States. Participants are 159 randomly selected women incarcerated in two North Carolina state prisons. Participants completed a battery of self-report measures to assess childhood victimization and current and lifetime experience of audio/visual hallucinations and delusions. In accordance with the dose–response model, we hypothesized a predictive relationship between severity, frequency, and type of victimization and psychosis for this sample of women prisoners. Results indicate that women who experienced multi-victimization were 2.4 times more likely to report current symptoms of psychosis than other women prisoners who experienced only physical or sexual victimization in childhood. Likewise, a one-unit increase in frequency of childhood victimization was associated with a 3.2 % increased likelihood of having reported symptoms of current psychosis. These results provide support for the dose–response model hypothesis that multi-victimization is an important predictor of psychosis for the women prisoner population. Results indicate that adjusting prison-based mental health services to address the relationship of childhood victimization and symptoms of psychosis may be a key factor in improving outcomes among this population.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant #P30 MH079920). Special thanks to David Edwards of the North Carolina Department of Correction and both the administration and staff at the two prisons where data collection took place.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no potential conflict of interest pertaining to this Psychiatric Quarterly submission. Additionally, there is no conflict of interest with our funding source. The funding source did not dictate design, results, or where the manuscript was submitted for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Social Work, Florida State University, 296 Champions Way, University Center C, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, USA

    Stephanie C. Kennedy & Stephen J. Tripodi

  2. Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, Campus Box 1196, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Carrie Pettus-Davis

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  1. Stephanie C. Kennedy
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  2. Stephen J. Tripodi
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  3. Carrie Pettus-Davis
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Correspondence to Stephanie C. Kennedy.

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Kennedy, S.C., Tripodi, S.J. & Pettus-Davis, C. The Relationship Between Childhood Abuse and Psychosis for Women Prisoners: Assessing the Importance of Frequency and Type of Victimization. Psychiatr Q 84, 439–453 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-013-9258-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-013-9258-2

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