An Exploration of the Relationship Between Perceived Social Support and Academic Achievement Among Former Prisoners

Abstract

The literature states the benefits of social support for cognitive and behavioral functioning, personal achievement, academic success, and successful prisoner reentry into the community. However, there are gaps in post release research that this project explores and builds on. Rates of recidivism are the most common measurements of whether or not people are successful after release, but these rates alone cannot encapsulate the pathways in and around the criminal justice system the road after departing from formalized supervision. 750 men and women release from prison in Washington State every month. Although notoriously hard to gather data on, the effective ways this costly demographic can achieve success on the outside is worth a plenary examination. Could policy be implemented to harness the cited powers of social support and postsecondary education? This study takes a mixed methods approach to dissect this relationship using survey and interview data from 57 participants across the country.The purpose of this research was to employ a social cognitive framework to further understand barriers to reintegration and gain insights into ways in which community organizations might serve as social network tools for this population. Cross-sectional survey results were tested for correlation using Pearson’s r, factor analysis, and cross-tabulations. The content analysis of transcribed interviews was used to discover themes of the most temporally relevant concerns of first hand sources. Imperative penal policy recommendations, areas for mixed methods design improvement, and new avenues for future research are highlighted.