A cross-sectional analytical study was done to determine the coping strategies, symptoms of mental illness and their socio-demographic correlates among the female PDLs in Zamboanga City Jail. 318 participants were included in the study. Data were gathered using a standard interviewer-guided questionnaire. The point prevalence of symptoms of mental illness was 11.32% with an interval prevalence of 10-17%. The Bivariate analysis showed that out of 8 major socio-demographic and socioeconomic factors including years of detention, only gender orientation (p=0.05) was found to be associated with symptoms of mental illness. For the coping strategies identified in this study, the most frequent coping strategy employed by the female PDLs among the adaptive coping responses were finding comfort in their religion or spiritual belief (n=239, 78.88%) followed by praying or meditating (n=231, 76.23%) which were both under the “religion” coping style. While among the maladaptive coping responses, the most frequent (n=200, 66%) coping style utilized is “self-distraction” this involved doing something such as reading, sleeping and watching TV to distract themselves from their current circumstances and stressors. It was therefore recommended that gender orientation should be considered in designing interventions to curtail the prevalence of mental illness in this population. And reinforcement of religious coping style and other adaptive coping styles that were least used by the female PDLs may be suggested to strengthen the adaptive coping among them.

Keyword: Coping strategies, symptoms of mental illness Socio-demographic Female persons deprived of liberty