Introducción.

El apoyo social ha sido útil como concepto eje para diferentes desarrollos sobre cómo las relaciones humanas positivas y las redes sociales sirven a los seres humanos para encontrarse en estados de relativo bienestar y para superar acontecimientos estresantes con los que se enfrentan durante su vida.

Lo anterior es particularmente importante en el caso de las mujeres en reclusión, quienes por lo general carecen de apoyo social, ya que frecuentemente son abandonadas por sus familiares y amigos con el consecuente impacto que esto tiene sobre su bienestar físico y emocional.

El apoyo de la familia y de los amigos durante el encarcelamiento puede implicar una diferencia enorme en las condiciones de vida de las mujeres en la prisión ya que es clave para su bienestar. Por ello, el objetivo de este artículo es identificar las principales fuentes de apoyo social de las mujeres recluidas en dos centros penitenciarios de la ciudad de México e indagar si la presencia o ausencia de apoyo social tiene un impacto sobre su bienestar físico y mental.

Método.

Se trata de un estudio de campo, descriptivo, que se llevó a cabo en dos prisiones de mujeres de la ciudad de México. El tipo de muestreo es no probabilístico seleccionado por conveniencia. La muestra final estuvo conformada por un total de 212 mujeres.

El instrumento empleado fue una entrevista semi-estructurada de 62 páginas que incluía diferentes áreas de la vida de estas mujeres. Para la elaboración de este artículo se analizaron las siguientes secciones: a)datos sociodemográficos, b)redes sociales, c)depresión y d)salud general: percepción de la salud física y emocional.

Las entrevistas se realizaron con el consentimiento por escrito de las mujeres y con su conocimiento de los objetivos de la investigación. El trabajo de campo en su totalidad tuvo una duración de 2 años y medio.

Resultados.

Las mujeres entrevistadas presentaron el siguiente perfil sociodemográfico: en su mayoría son menores de 40 años (84%); resalta su baja escolaridad (únicamente primaria, el 41%), son mujeres solteras (48.6%), que en su mayoría viven sin pareja y sin hijos (40.5%); 58.6% huyeron alguna vez de su casa cuando eran niñas y cerca de 40% vivió en la calle.

Se identificó un alto nivel de abandono entre las mujeres reclusas por parte de familiares y amigos; 60% de las mujeres en prisión refirió no haber recibido visitas durante el último mes.

Al relacionar la frecuencia de las visitas con la percepción sobre la salud, se observó que en las mujeres que no recibieron visitas en el último mes, existía una tendencia a valorar más negativamente su salud física (mala-regular) que las que sí recibieron visitas (43.5% versus 37.9%).

Cuando se relacionó la frecuencia de visitas con la presencia y/ o ausencia de depresión, se encontró que las mujeres que no recibieron visitas en el último mes presentaron más episodios depresivos, aunque no hubo significancia estadística.

Discusión y conclusiones.

Los resultados de este estudio indican que existe cierta asociación positiva entre el apoyo social que reciben las mujeres internas de sus familiares y amigos con su bienestar físico y mental. Sin embargo, no se puede afirmar que se trate de una relación causal, lo que coincide con otros informes en los que se reconoce la influencia positiva del apoyo social sobre el bienestar de las internas, pero también se apunta que se trata de una relación compleja que debe investigarse más a fondo.

Una de las principales recomendaciones que se desprenden de estos resultados es la necesidad de crear conciencia en los familiares de las mujeres reclusas sobre la importancia de promover y mantener un contacto continuo y permanente con ellas, ya que este tipo de apoyo suele ser de gran beneficio para su bienestar físico y emocional. Asimismo es necesario que las instituciones penitenciarias se replanteen el recurso de suspensión de visitas como medio de castigo y control, ya que tal medida representa una serie de consecuencias negativas tanto para la población interna como para la propia institución.

Introduction.

Social support has been useful as a key axis for different approaches on how positive human relations and social networks help the individual to achieve states of relative well-being and overcome stressful events which they have to cope with in their lives. This is particularly important in the case of imprisoned women, who generally lack social support, since many of them are abandoned by their relatives and friends with the consequent impact that this has on their physical and emotional well-being.

Support from family and friends during imprisonment can imply an enormous difference in the living conditions of imprisoned women. It has been proved that the social support individuals receive through their social networks is a key factor for their well-being, specially at times of stress, transition or crisis, and protects them from the emergence of physical and psychic disorders.

For these reasons, the objective of this article is to identify the main sources of social support in convicted women at two penitentiary centers in Mexico City and to determine whether the presence or absence of social support has an impact on their physical and mental well-being.

Method.

This is a descriptive field study carried out at two women's prisons in Mexico City: The East Preventive Center for Women and the Tepepan Center of Social Readjustment for Women. The type of sampling was non-probabilistic and selected by convenience. The final sample comprised of a total of 212 women. This study included current and lifetime female abusers of alcohol, tobacco and drugs, aged between 18 and 65, who could read and write. The exclusion criteria used were having a psychiatric disorder or a physical disability that would prevent them from completing the interview.

The instrument used for compiling the information was a semi-structured interview consisting of 62 pages on various areas from the lives of female prisoners. The following sections of the questionnaire were analyzed for this article: a) sociodemographic characteristics, b) social networks, c) depression, and d) perception of physical and emotional health.

The procedure followed to gather information on the female prisoners began with the establishment of an agreement with the General Administration of Prevention and Social Readjustment of the Federal District. Through this agreement, the mental health team, comprising psychiatrists, psychologists and anthropologists -previously trained in the use of a structured interview-, were granted access to the correctional facility. The interviews were carried out after the women had given their informed consent and told of the objectives of the study. The interviews lasted two hours on average, although on some occasions they took up to four sessions of two hours. The field work lasted two years.

Results.

Socio-demographic profile: The majority of the interviewees were under 40 years old (84%). They had low schooling (with only 41% having completed elementary school), were unmarried (48.6%), and most of them did not live either with a partner or an offspring (40.5%). A total of 58.6% had left home when they were young and nearly 40% lived on the streets. Before being admitted to the institution, they had been shopkeepers (29.5%), employees (21.9%), housewives (13.8%), manual workers(7.1%) and informal workers (5.7%).

Contact with relatives and friends in the past month: A high number of the women in prison reported not having received any visits during the past month, with only a small percentage receiving daily visits. Almost 60% of the women declared not receiving any visits from significant figures, such as their partners or children.

Frequency of visits and perception of physical and mental health: A third of the women rated their physical and mental health as not so good. When frequency of visits was linked to the women's perception of health, it was found that women, who had not received any visits over the past month, tended to evaluate their physical health more negatively (bad-mediocre) than those who received visits (43.5% versus 38.5%). A similar percentage was observed in the evaluation of their mental health (47.8% versus 45.3%).

Frequency of visits and depression: When relating the frequency of visits to the presence and/or absence of depression, it was found that women who had not received visits during the past month experienced more depressive episodes (72.7% versus 61.1%). Nevertheless, these differences were not significant.

Discussion.

One of the most outstanding aspects observed in this study was the high level of abandonment suffered by the inmates, which confirms findings from other studies about women being abandoned by their loved ones more often than men after commiting a crime.

The study found that in terms of accessibility, the physical location of penitentiary centers, is not a factor that fully explains the abandonment suffered by these women, since most of the inmates' relatives and friends live in the same city and even in the same neighborhood where the penitentiary center is located.

A high presence of present depressive episodes was also observed in female prisoners, both among those who reported receiving visits and those who did not. A possible answer here is that imprisonment itself is a highly stressful event for those undergoing it and the support received from relatives and friends is not enough to offset the effects of confinement.

Conclusions.

The results of this study indicate there is a certain positive association between the social support female prisoners received from relatives and friends and their physical and mental well-being. Nevertheless, this cannot be considered a causal relationship, a conclusion which agrees with other reports regarding the positive influence of social support on prisoners' well-being. However, it is also suggested that this is a complex relation that must be investigated more in depth, since this support does not necessarily has the same effect on all individuals.

One of the main recommendations deriving from these results is the need to make prisoners' relatives aware of the importance of promoting and maintaining a continuous and permanent contact with them, since this type of support usually brings about an enormous benefit for their physical and emotional well-being. It is also necessary for penitentiary institutions to reconsider the suspension of visits as a means of punishment and control, since this entails a series of negative consequences for the internal population and the institution itself.