Ethnicity self-esteem and custodial adjustment in young offenders

Abstract

The Culture Free Self-Esteem Inventory (Battle, 1992) and the Custodial Adjustment Questionnaire (Thornton, 1987) were administered to each of a group of white, black and Asian inmates of a young offenders institution. Results showed that Asian inmates scored significantly lower on all self-esteem measures and significantly higher on inmate distress than either of the other groups. Self-esteem was also found to be significantly negatively correlated with inmate distress. The main explanations for the findings centred around suggestions that separation from the family reduces ethnic identity in Asian inmates and thus results in a lowered ability to stave off attacks to self-esteem and hence adapt to custodial life, although caution was exercised in these explanations since no direct measure of ethnic identity was taken.