Emotion Regulation Strategy and Resilience of Female Prisoners

Abstract

Female prisoners suffered both mentally and physically. An interview with six of them revealed that they suffered some negative feelings, such as loneliness, depression (of prison rules and other prisoner’s bad treatment), emptiness and guilt (of being far from children and no visitors). Moreover, they also suffered from physical problem, like headache, insomnia, and suicidal trial. Both mental and physical caused stress that eventually led them to find their own emotion regulation strategy and resilience. This research aimed to find the effects of reappraisal and suppression as emotion regulation strategies towards the resilience of female prisoners. The participants of this study were 132 female prisoners in Lapas II A Semarang. The data were analyzed by using regression and case analysis. Regression analysis was used to analyze the numeric data, while case analysis was conducted based on interview upon four female prisoners who had high score and low score. This interview aimed at exploring the resilience of female prisoners in Lapas II A Semarang more deeply. The regression analysis showed that reappraisal and suppression altogether affected towards the resilience of female prisoners. However, the result was different when both strategies were applied separately; reappraisal gave significant effects towards resilience while the suppression did not. The case analysis revealed that reappraisal such as significant supports from surroundings (family, friends or prison staff), spirituality and self-esteem were the factors that also influence the resilience ability of female prisoners.