Violence-related Traumatic Brain Injury in Justice-involved Women

Date of Award

3-17-2017

Document Type

Undergraduate Capstone Project

Degree Name

Psy.D.

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Kim Gorgens

Second Advisor

Terri M. Davis

Third Advisor

Jennifer Gafford

Keywords

Keywords Justice-involved, Corrections, Women, TBI, Violence

Abstract

Study Questions: This study investigated the rates of violence-related TBI among justiceinvolved women compared to justice-involved men. This study also investigated whether a number of sociological vulnerabilities were associated with violence-related TBI among justiceinvolved women. Method: Archival data from 409 justice-involved individuals were used in this study. Men and women were compared on the prevalence and incidence of violence-related TBI, violence-related multiple TBIs, and all multiple TBIs using Pearson Chi-Squares. Men and women were compared on the total number of TBIs and youngest age of TBI using Mann-Whitney U Tests. Women were grouped by violence-related TBI history and compared on multiple vulnerabilities such as physical health problems, mental illness, and length of incarceration. Women were then re-grouped into violence-related multiple TBI, violence-related single TBI, and non-violencerelated TBI and compared on the same variables using Kruskall-Wallis one-way ANOVAs with post hoc tests. Results: There was no significant difference between genders in prevalence or incidence of violence-related TBI. Gender was, however, significantly associated with multiple TBIs (10.330, df = 1, p = .001), and multiple violence-related TBIs (7.074, df = 1, p = .008). History of violence-related TBI was significantly associated with physical health problems (7.902, df = 1, p = .005) and length of incarceration (p = .022). There were significant differences between multiple violence-related TBIs, single violence-related TBI, and non-violence related TBI groups on length of incarceration (p = .001). Discussion: This study revealed a higher prevalence of multiple TBIs and violence-related multiple TBIs among justice-involved women compared to justice-involved men. ViolenceVIOLENCE- RELATED TBI IN JUSTICE-INVOLVED WOMEN 3 related TBIs were associated with more reports of physical illness and increased incarceration times. Clinicians can use this information to justify the identification of justice-involved women with these injuries so they may better tailor services to improve personal outcomes and reduce cost burdens to justice systems.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.

Extent

34 pages

This document is currently not available here.



Share

COinS