STYLES AND STRATEGIES OF COPING WITH STRESS IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE TIME SPENT IN PENITENTIARY ISOLATION OF INCARCERATED WOMEN

<ns3:p>Introduction. Among incarcerated people, time is one of the most important values, as it is the unit of measurement of the stay in isolation. The purpose of this study was to assess the styles and strategies of coping with stress in female inmates at different stages of incarceration.Materials and methods. The study included 143 female inmates. The age of the respondents ranged from 19 to 70 years of age. The CISS Stress Coping Questionnaire and the Mini-COPE Stress Coping Inventory were used in the study.Results and conclusions. As the time spent in isolation passed, inmates were more likely to take actions characteristic of the task-focused stress coping style when faced with stressful situations. The avoidance-focused stress coping style was more often presented by inmates sentenced to short-term sentences and who had less than a year left before the end of their prison sentence. The task-focused style of coping with stress and coping strategies aimed at solving the problem were mainly characteristic of those prisoners for whom the penitentiary unit served as a second home in the long term.Implications. Styles and strategies of coping with stress can promote the resolution of problems arising from isolation or intensify the level of stress. The collected research material will lend itself to practical application in penitentiary interactions aimed at more effectively assisting inmates in the process of adaptation to conditions of isolation.</ns3:p>