Mentally Healthy in The Prison: Physical Activity Effects on Sleep Quality of Adolescent Prisoners

Abstract

Problems have brought many adolescents in the prison. Their cohorts pass the day with freedom, while adolescents prisoners must spend months or years without freedom and other developmental tasks at their ages. This may cause many mental health issues on them. This study explored the effects of physical activity using group-based Games on sleep quality of adolescent prisoners. Participants of this study were 24 male adolescent prisoners (age between 14-18 years old). These participants showed many behavioral and emotional problems before entering and during their time in prison, such as: family problem, drug abuse, problems with peers and officers. Participants had three sessions of game activities in one week. This experimental study measured sleep quality with adapted Sleep Quality Scale (Shahid, Wilkinson, Marcu & Shapiro (eds), 2012) which comprises 25-items (Cronbach α = .916) after statistical adaptation processes. It was conducted using pretest-posttest design. This study suggested that group-based games can increase sleep quality, paired samples t-test value  (t = -5.527; p < .001). Posttest data (M = 37.50; SD = 7. 84) higher than pretest data (M = 28.83; SD = 7.76). It can be inferred that many other conditions affecting can be intervened through these physical activities. This study was conducted to small number of participants and  shorter time. More participants and longer time for intervention need to for better results for generalization.