The role of social identity and stigma for the well-being of prisoners

The aim of the present study was to investigate how the expectation of rejection by external society affects the well-being of people who spend time in prison and/or have a criminal record. In recent years, research has paid increasing attention to the effects of stigmatization. Indeed, rejection due to a stigmatized social identity has been found to be detrimental to the well-being of ex-prisoners (Kyprianides, Easterbrook & Cruwys, 2019). We applied the Rejection‐Identification Model (RIM; Branscombe et al., 1999) and the Social Identity Model of Identity Change (SIMIC, Haslam, 2014) to examine the relationship between social identity, rejection, and well-being among prisoners. The social cure tradition has shown that identification with multiple groups (typically those that are not stigmatised or discriminated against) is associated with better health and well‐being for those facing life stressors. Therefore, we predicted that identifying as a prisoner will threat the well-being, while multiple social identities will buffer well‐being against the negative effects of group‐based rejection among prisoners. In Italy, 52 male prisoners completed a questionnaire that assessed well-being (depression, anxiety, stress and life satisfaction), identification and group membership (student, family role, …). The correlational results showed a negative relationship between stigma identification and well-being and a positive relationship between group membership and well-being, according to the hypotheses. The perception of stigma correlates positively with depression. These findings will be discussed in terms of the practical implications of dealing with prisoners' stigmatized social identity.