Session: Measurement Development to Increase Rigor of Research on Corrections and Criminal Justice Interventions (Society for Social Work and Research 27th Annual Conference - Social Work Science and Complex Problems: Battling Inequities + Building Solutions)

Over 1.4 million people are housed in correctional settings, with approximately 550,000 released each year. Yet, recent, validated measures for use in correctional settings, with incarcerated or returning individuals remain starkly lacking in the field of social work research. When measures are available for this setting and population, they often represent impartial, outdated, or potentially harmful conceptualizations of psychosocial constructs and research processes. This symposium focuses on the development and validation of measures as a response to new frameworks for understanding and engaging in social work criminal justice research. For example, current practices of measurement during release and re-entry focus on risk for reincarceration which prioritizes unidimensional goals of reducing recidivism in common interventions without holistic consideration for human factors of re-entry. Current conceptualizations of social support for incarcerated individuals, similarly, dichotomize social support figures in interventions as either "good" or "bad" for the individual without acknowledgment of a multifaceted understanding of support. Even in our qualitative research processes, we haven't established reliable methods of investigating the experiences and justification of our participants in research processes, despite valid reasons that individuals with incarceration histories may be hesitant to engage. As social work has progressed in its understanding of criminal legal issues, new needs have been identified for the measurement of participant experiences and outcomes which have pragmatic implications for our research and the populations that it serves. The goals of this symposium are to use data and lessons learned to promote more rigorous research and interventions for individuals with incarceration histories through advanced knowledge about the measurement of research constructs and processes. Critical discussion of the practical impact on participant populations will be highlighted in relation to the most progressive understanding of these concepts and the frameworks in which they are implemented. Symposium members will present empirical evidence on the processes of measurement development, validation, and implementation for improving understanding of the needs of individuals in the criminal justice system as it relates to wellbeing while incarcerated, during research involvement, and through re-entry. Presenters detail findings from 1) a qualitative pilot of a measure developed to verify the accuracy, utility, and cultural responsiveness of qualitative interviewing content and processes with fathers in reentry and mothers partnered with fathers in re-entry; 2) a pilot trial of a prison reentry program resulting in the pilot and validation of a re-entry wellbeing measure for participant outcomes after release; 3) a measurement validation of a multidimensional social support measure developed for use during a pilot trial of a prison re-entry program with participants from 50 prisons across four states. Implications for social work research and practice will be discussed including the need to update frameworks for how we conceptualize psychosocial outcomes and research processes for individuals impacted by incarceration, dissemination of information on three newly developed measures for use with correctional populations, and increasing the accuracy of social work research to measure and respond to the needs of research participants.