May ginhawa ba sa paglaya? : a phenomenological study of post-imprisonment coping mechanisms of former female prisoners.

Abstract

This study aimed to explore and describe the coping mechanisms of former female prisoners on family-related and on community-related problems they encountered after release from imprisonment. Former female prisoners were the informants in this study who were sentenced for not less than 3 years and who were released from prison for not less than 6 months. The sampling strategy used for this study was snowball or chain sampling, where informants were collected through asking for contacts from previous informants or institutions, while the chain of contacts continued. The sample size acquired for this study was 14 informants. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews. Inductive data analysis procedures with support from certain theories were utilized. Themes were constructed from the answers given by the informants. The results attained from the analysis categorized post-imprisonment family problems into six themes, namely: financial and health problems, being an adjusting beginner, feeling conscious and shy, death or loss of family members, marriage or leaving of their children, and distant relationship with their children; and the post-imprisonment community problems into four themes, specifically: being ridiculed by neighbors, labeling and judgment from others, feeling conscious and shy, and fear and pressure on self. The coping mechanisms from family-related problems were through repression, anger, intellectualization, positive thinking, crying, spirituality, productively distracting oneself, serving and adjusting oneself for the family, and self-motivation. Lastly, for the community-related coping, they were avoidance, humor, spirituality, intellectualization, productively distracting oneself, motivating oneself, giving love, and disproving misconceptions.