Journal article
Association of Reentry Well-Being with Psychological Distress, Employment, and Housing Instability 15-Months After Incarceration
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research
04/14/2025
DOI: 10.1086/736158
Abstract
Objective: Assessment of individual well-being during preparation for release from incarceration can provide a more holistic picture than an exclusive focus on risk factors. The Reentry Well-Being Assessment Tool (RWAT) is created to capture different dimensions of reentry well-being. This study examines the predictive validity of the RWAT measures with the post-release outcomes of psychological distress, employment, and housing instability.
Methods: Data from1,006 participants collected initially in an experimental trial of a prison reentry program is analyzed with generalized linear mixed modeling in Mplus. Analysis is run separately for the 13 individual and two composite RWAT measures. Outcomes of psychological distress, employment, and housing instability were measured at two-weeks, four-months, eight-months, and 15-months post-release.
Results: Employment satisfaction while incarcerated is significantly associated with lower housing instability, higher employment, and lower distress. The composite measures of healthy thinking and reentry well-being show similar results in improving employment and psychological distress post-release.
Conclusions: The pattern of findings across the RWAT measures with lower psychological distress suggests that the assessment captures dimensions of well-being relevant for the reentry period. Future research on the composite measures is needed to understand how well they perform over time across multiple assessments.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Association of Reentry Well-Being with Psychological Distress, Employment, and Housing Instability 15-Months After Incarceration
- Creators
- Christopher VeehTanya RennCarrie PettusJohn Moore
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI
- 10.1086/736158
- ISSN
- 2334-2315
- eISSN
- 1948-822X
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 04/14/2025
- Academic Unit
- School of Social Work
- Record Identifier
- 9984810943502771
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