Content area
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the development and validation of the Prison Fellowship Well-being index (PF-WBI), a new quantitative tool for assessing prisoner and staff well-being within prison cultures.
Design/methodology/approach
The PF-WBI was developed through an iterative process of item creation, administration alongside established well-being measures and a series of data analyses. Data was collected from both staff and prisoners (n = 989) across four North Dakota prisons.
Findings
Analysis supported a four-factor structure for the PF-WBI measuring motivation/self-esteem, relationships/community functioning, hope/mood and stress-related detriments. The PF-WBI demonstrated excellent internal consistency reliability, convergent validity with established well-being measures and criterion-related validity for both staff and prisoners. Measurement invariance across staff and prisoners was also confirmed.
Originality/value
The PF-WBI offers a new and versatile tool for researchers and practitioners to assess staff and prisoner well-being in correctional settings. It can be used to evaluate prison cultures and the effectiveness of culture improvement efforts.
Details
Well being;
Culture;
Convergent validity;
Perceptions;
Scholarships & fellowships;
Self esteem;
Motivation;
Quantitative psychology;
Participation;
Questionnaires;
Social functioning;
Reliability;
Prisons;
Prisoners;
Stress;
Correctional institutions;
Consent;
Indexes;
Measures;
Grammatical aspect;
Property;
Emotions;
Phonetic form
1 Department of Research and Innovation, Prison Fellowship, Lansdowne, Virginia, USA