1Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Galgotias University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pardesh, India
2Associate Professor, Ved Nursing College, Baroli, Panipat, Haryana, India
3Psychiatrist, Dr. Ankur Hospital, Panipat, India
*Corresponding author: Mr. Sujith Chandran Assosiate Professor, Ved Nursing College, Baroli, Panipat, India, 132103, Email: -athamsujith@gmail.com
Online published on 8 September, 2016.
Prisoners are those people who were found guilty and convicted as per India Penal Code and staying inside the jails. The stress behind the bars of those prisoners can leads to serious psychological problems. Aerobic laughter is a fun and easy technique that enables us to laugh long and hearty without the use of jokes or comedy and the benefits of it are emotional release, promotes empathy, improves communication, consolidate co-operation with authority and reduces disciplinary problems. It also improves the mood and health by reducing anger and stress.
The main objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of aerobic laughter therapy on perceived level of stress among male prisoners. For the purpose of the study a conceptual framework was developed based on modified Von Ludwig Bertallanffy's general system model.
A pre experimental one group pre test post test research design was used. The pilot study was conducted in district jail Sonepat, Haryana and the reliability of the tool was found
0.84 through split half method which is highly reliable. The study was conducted on 50 samples from district jail, Karnal, Haryana, selected by purposive sampling technique. The intervention was given for 21 days and the perceived stress was assessed with Cohen's perceived stress scale before and after intervention. The data collected was edited, compiled, tabulated and analysis done by descriptive and inferential statistics.
The perceived level of stress of majority of prisoners before intervention was severe, which was reduced to moderate after the intervention. The mean pre-test perceived stress score 25.66 (SD = 4.018) was higher than the mean post test perceived stress score 16–80 (SD = 3.912) with a mean difference of 8.86. The‘t’ value is 14.766 (p<0.05) is more than the table value 2.01 (p<0.05) was significant. The marital status of male prisoners was statistically associated with the mean difference in pre-test perceived stress.
It was inferred that the aerobic laughter therapy was significantly effective to reduce the perceived stress of male prisoners.
Perceived stress, male prisoners, aerobic laughter therapy, district jail
