Classifying ‘Importation Strains’ through Latent Class Analysis: How do Childhood Traumas Influence Incarcerated Women’s Self-Rated Health?

• In Event: Trauma and Mental Health Among Justice-Involved Individuals and Families

Abstract

This study furthers the application of General Strain Theory to better understanding the workings of criminal justice contexts for women (Agnew and DeLisi 2012). Preliminary analysis indicates that childhood physical abuse is positively related to women’s self-rated mental health problems while in prison, and childhood sexual abuse is positively associated with physical self-rated health problems. This data set involves 201 Latina, Africa American and White women in a minimum security federal prison in Texas. My objective in this paper is to better specify broader typologies of childhood traumas and their influences through first applying latent class analyses. I will then test how types of childhood traumas influence maternal health while in prison. This analysis will also theoretically expand the meaning of types of “importation strains” (Foster 2012), as well as feminist research on pathways to imprisonment and how women fare under those conditions. This approach may add new information on the relative contributions of types of childhood traumas on women’s health in prison, potentially complementing research that instead uses totals count of traumas experienced.

Author

• Holly Foster, Texas A&M University