The Mediating Role of Perceived Social Support in the Relationship Between Psychological Resilience and Depression Level in a Sample of Prisoners

Background: According to statistical data, the number of people committing a crime is increasing day by day. This situation makes it necessary to examine and improve the psychological conditions of prisoners. Previous researches in the literature show that depression is a prominent psychiatric illness for prisoners. It is seen that depressive symptoms have been frequently studied in terms of their relationship with perceived social support and psychological resilience. In this study, the hypothesis that perceived social support will play a mediating role in the relationship between psychological resilience and depressive symptoms has been tested.

Methods: A total of 494 prisoners from the prisons in Turkey were accepted as participants. Information was collected from the participants with Beck Depression Inventory, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and The Resilience Scale for Adults and Demographic Form.

Results: Based on the analysis, the hypothesis of the study was supported, and it was found that perceived social support played a mediating role in the relationship between psychological resilience and depressive symptom.

Conclusions: The evaluation of psychological resilience and perceived social support, which are established to be important factors for prisoners, can also be put forth to be the factors that could be protective. Clinical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future studies were discussed.

Cite this article as: Çıvgın U, Gün Z. The mediating role of perceived social support in the relationship between psychological resilience and depression level in a sample of prisoners. Psychiatry Clin Psychopharmacol. 2022;32(2):159-166.