Women’s peer to peer support inside a jail support group

Abstract

Social support plays an integral role in health and well-being. Behind bars, support from peers on the inside is also beneficial, facilitating prosocial behavior, sobriety, coping mechanisms, and re-entry success. Social support frequently is delivered through supportive communication. However, it is not clear how such communication is enacted, as the majority of studies relies upon participants’ recollections of supportive communication during a past crisis. The current study analyzed conversation among women participating in a jail support group to determine how supportive communication was enacted. Working with an abductive framework, the analysis found six forms of supportive communication: 1) legitimizing problems, behaviors, and perceptions; 2) advising on practical and logistical issues; 3) soothing and reassuring; 4) clarifying the problem; 5) esteem-building; and 6) emotion-expressing. Findings are novel in that they broaden our understanding of how communicative support is delivered while an individual is experiencing distress; while receivers and givers of supportive communication are both experiencing distress; and in the context of a jail. This study suggests efforts to enhance jailed women’s support of one another should be undertaken, largely by implementing peer support groups and training facilitators in effective communication techniques.