The development of participatory health research among incarcerated women in a Canadian prison
- 1 February 2009
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Emerald in International Journal of Prisoner Health
- Vol. 5 (2), 95-107
- https://doi.org/10.1080/17449200902884021
Abstract
This paper describes the development of a unique prison participatory research project, in which incarcerated women formed a research team, the research activities and the lessons learned. The participatory action research project was conducted in the main short sentence minimum/medium security women’s prison located in a Western Canadian province. An ethnographic multi‐method approach was used for data collection and analysis. Quantitative data was collected by surveys and analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data was collected from orientation package entries, audio recordings, and written archives of research team discussions, forums and debriefings, and presentations. These data and ethnographic observations were transcribed and analysed using iterative and interpretative qualitative methods and NVivo 7 software. Up to 15 women worked each day as prison research team members; a total of 190 women participated at some time in the project between November 2005 and August 2007. Incarcerated women peer researchers developed the research processes including opportunities for them to develop leadership and technical skills. Through these processes, including data collection and analysis, nine health goals emerged. Lessons learned from the research processes were confirmed by the common themes that emerged from thematic analysis of the research activity data. Incarceration provides a unique opportunity for engagement of women as expert partners alongside academic researchers and primary care workers in participatory research processes to improve their health.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Participatory Action Research Pilot Study of Urban Health Disparities Using Rapid Assessment Response and EvaluationAmerican Journal of Public Health, 2008
- The Relationship of Stress, Impulsivity, and Beliefs to Drug Use Severity in a Sample of Women Prison InmatesInternational Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2007
- Empowerment-Based Research Methods: A 10-Year Approach to Enhancing Indigenous Social and Emotional WellbeingAustralasian Psychiatry, 2007
- Woman to Woman: Coming Together for Positive Change—Using Empowerment and Popular Education to Prevent HIV in WomenAIDS Education and Prevention, 2006
- Treating Incarcerated Women: Gender MattersPsychiatric Clinics of North America, 2006
- The Complexity of IntersectionalitySigns: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2005
- The Impact of Drug Use and Crime Involvement on Health Problems Among Female Drug OffendersThe Prison Journal, 2002
- Editorial. Health promoting settings: form Ottawa to JakartaHealth Promotion International, 1997
- Health, human development and the community ecosystem: three ecological modelsHealth Promotion International, 1993
- A theory of human motivation.Psychological Review, 1943