Assessment of Stress among Physically Challenged Prisoners: Influence of Age and Nature of Physical Challengedness

The present study examines the stress levels experienced by prisoners who are physically challenged and influence of age and nature of physical challengedness. A total of 234 subjects were selected for the study. The participants were divided into the four groups, prisoners who are physically challenged and prisoners who are not physically challenged. Physically challenged individuals out side the prisons and subjects who were not physically challenged and lived outside the prisons formed other two groups. Dube’s Life Events Scale (1983) was administered to all the participants. Two-way ANOVA was employed to find out the difference between groups and age on stress. Results revealed that physically challenged prisoners had maximum stress compared to other prisoners as well as subjects living outside the prison and physically challenged. Secondly, age of the respondents did not have significant impact over stress scores. Finally, it was found that the nature of physical challengedness did not have significant impact over stress scores.