THE DYNAMICS OF COPING STRATEGIES AMONG FEMALE NARCOTICS INMATES IN FACING CORRECTIONAL PRESSURES

Abstract

Introduction: Female narcotics inmates experience multiple forms of pressure during incarceration, including physical, psychological, and socio-institutional pressures. Understanding how they cope with these pressures is important for explaining the processes through which resilience is maintained in a correctional setting.

Objective: The study aims to examine the dynamics of coping strategies and how coping connects internal and external protective resources with the risks encountered.

Methods: Using a qualitative case-study design within a social-constructivist paradigm, in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document/artifact review were conducted with 15 female narcotics inmates at the Class IIA Women’s Correctional Institution (LPP) Kerobokan, Bali, triangulated with two medical officers and three customary-village officials. Data were analyzed using inductive-deductive thematic analysis within Ungar’s Social Ecological Resilience Theory (SERT).

Result: Participants faced physical pressures (withdrawal symptoms, dysmenorrhea, migraines, ovarian cysts), psychological pressures (craving, guilt, longing for family, anxiety, perceived sentencing injustice), and socio-institutional pressures (seniority, limited staff, customary/adat sanctions, stigma, boredom). Two coping patterns emerged: adaptive problem-focused coping, including help-seeking, counseling, contacting family, consulting senior inmates, vocational activities, and prayer; and maladaptive emotion-focused coping, expressed through acting out (fighting, wall-punching). Coping linked internal protective resources (Karmaphala belief, kudiang men women acceptance, hope) and external resources (family, peers, officers, clinic services) with continuing risk factors. Coping was dynamic, with participants showing adaptive or maladaptive responses depending on stressor intensity and resource accessibility.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that coping strategies form a culturally embedded bridge between adversity and resilience, with implications for gender- and culture-sensitive correctional intervention.