Relationship between Father Rejection and Psychological Maladjustment of Criminals

Abstract

The present study assessed the degree of perceived father acceptance-rejection and its relationship with psychological maladjustment in a group of 81 prisoners (40 males and 41 females) with the mean age of 37.2 years (SD=13.77), selected from the Central Jail, Peshawar. For comparison, 90 non- criminal adults (45 males and 45 females) having mean age of 36.23 (SD=12.68), were selected from the general population, matched with the criminal group in terms of their demographic characteristics. Short form of Father Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (Adult PARQ Father), and Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Adult PAQ ) by Rohner & Khaleque (2008), translated into Urdu by Riaz (2011) were used for assessment. Results revealed that criminals perceived more father rejection than non-criminals and multiple regression analysis showed that father rejection, specifically father indifference/neglect, is a significant predictor of psychological maladjustment in criminals/prisoners. These findings, therefore, support the hypotheses of the study.