Depressive symptoms in older adults with and without a history of incarceration: A matched pairs comparison

Abstract

Objectives

Previous research has found that many incarcerated individuals have mental health conditions and that incarcerated women may be at elevated risk. These individuals have been shown to experience mental health concerns shortly after their release, but little is known about their mental health later in life. This study compared depressive symptoms in older adults with and without a history of incarceration and examined the impact of gender on this relationship.

Method

Data from 160 pairs of adults aged 65 or older (82.5% male, mean age = 73.4 years) who participated in the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) was utilized. Older adults with a history of incarceration were matched to those without based on age, gender, race, and education level. Depressive symptoms (CES-D) of older adults with and without a history of incarceration were compared using a repeated-measures ANOVA.

Results

The main effect of incarceration history (p=.001, partial eta²=.07) and the interaction between incarceration history and gender (p=.01, partial eta²=.04) were significant. Follow-up analyses revealed that the difference between depressive symptoms for older women with and without a history of incarceration was significant (p=.02, d = 0.69), whereas the difference for older men was not significant (p=.19, d = 0.16).

Conclusions

Findings suggest older adults with a history of incarceration report more depressive symptoms than those without and that the effect is seen among older women. Negative effects of incarceration on mental health may therefore persist into later life, highlighting the importance of pre- and post-release mental health services.

Keywords:

• Depression
• older adults
• former inmates
• incarceration

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Data availability statement

Data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the Open Science Framework at http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/4AJSF. These data were derived from the HRS data products, which are available in the public domain: https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/data-products?_ga=2.4095024.1618830523.1616102669-1695699187.1616102669