An early social support network analysis of men facing reentry

Purpose

Despite the acknowledged value of social support during reentry from prison, studies on the subject seldom use network-level instruments to provide more holistic policy solutions. This paper adopts a network approach that specifically defines social support as the resources exchanged through social ties. This definition expands the ways individuals can vary in the nature and scope of their social support.

Method

With a sample of 85 incarcerated men preparing for reentry, this study explored the key ways individuals can vary in their social support. Specifically, this study adopted a reentry specific name generator embedded in a semi-structured interview, wherein participants could delineate between different types of support. These interviews took place within prison and were administered with the software Network Canvas.

Results

Participants had a particularly challenging time anticipating transportation support upon release, especially when compared to other types of resources (e.g., having someone to vent to). The size and structure of their overall networks also varied considerably, with some anticipating all resources being provided by one person, whereas some could anticipate a variety of resources from a number of different people. Individual scores on resource diversity, counted as the number of unique resources in a network, varied considerable as well, and was not found to be a function of network size alone.

Conclusions

Existing measures of social support miss key areas of network-level variation in the nature and structure of social support. Adopting a network or resource-based approach could provide practitioners with the tools to effectively “take stock” of the resource network of those preparing to return home and more effectively funnel resources into those gaps.