Women's Health Issues
Volume 17, Issue 4 , Pages 237-243 , July 2007

Short-Term Psychological Adjustment of Female Prison Inmates on a Minimum Security Unit

Portions of this paper were presented at the 37th annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Boston, Massachusetts.

  • Kayleen A. Islam-Zwart, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Eastern Washington University, Department of Psychology, Cheney, Washington
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Kayleen A. Islam-Zwart, PhD, Department of Psychology, Eastern Washington University, 151 Martin Hall, Cheney, WA 99004-2431.
  • ,
  • Peter W. Vik, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Idaho State University, Department of Psychology, Pocatello, Idaho
  • ,
  • Karen S. Rawlins, BA

      Affiliations

    • Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Washington

Received 28 April 2006 ,Revised 5 November 2006 ,Accepted 7 February 2007.

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 This research was supported by a Humanities/Social Science Grant from Idaho State University awarded to Peter W. Vik, PhD.

PII: S1049-3867(07)00032-1

doi: 10.1016/j.whi.2007.02.007

Women's Health Issues
Volume 17, Issue 4 , Pages 237-243 , July 2007