Effects of an Emotional Education Program on Prisoners: An Experimental Study.

Background: Emotional education has beneficial effects on physical and/or emotional health, resulting in a better quality of life. Thus, it is beneficial to provide prisoners with emotional education, because of the difficulties they often have, to attain these benefits.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the effects of a nursing intervention program in emotional education for incarcerated persons.

Methods: Experimental study with pretest-posttest repeated measures with a control group was conducted at a penitentiary center in the southeast of Spain. Forty-eight prisoners participated in the emotional education intervention program, and another 48 were part of the control group. The emotional intelligence questionnaire 24-item Trait Meta-Mood Scale, the resilience scale Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Rathus Assertiveness Questionnaire, and the 36-item Short Form Health Survey were utilized.

Findings: The intragroup, preintervention and postintervention comparisons in the study group showed improvements in self-esteem (p = 0.00, r = 0.51), resilience (p = 0.00, r = 0.42), assertiveness (p = 0.00, r = 0.46), and emotional intelligence in its dimensions of repair (p = 0.00, r = 0.32) and clarity (p = 0.02, r = 0.22) as well as in most of the quality of life dimensions. Significant intergroup differences were also found in all of these variables, except for attention and emotional clarity dimensions.

Conclusion: The intervention improved the socioemotional health and quality of life of the prisoners, highlighting the importance of these interventions to be performed by the nursing personnel on a regular basis as a programmed activity within prisons.