Abstract
Objective: To determine the childhood perceptual difference of paternal acceptance-rejection between those having psychological disorders and non-clinical population during adulthood.
Study Design: Comparative study.
Place and Duration of Study: Karwan-e-Hayat, Psychiatric Care and Rehabilitation Centre, Keamari, Karachi, Pakistan, from January to August 2011.
Methodology: To test our hypotheses, 69 participants were selected from Karwan-e-Hayat Psychiatric Care and Rehabilitation Centre, Karachi on the basis of purposive sampling technique and 79 from Karachi city on the basis of convenient sampling technique. To measure their perceived paternal acceptance-rejection during childhood, Adult Parental acceptance-rejection questionnaire (PARQ)/control: father-short form (Urdu translation) was administered. The statistical analysis of data was done with the predictive analytics software (PASW).
Results: One hundred and forty eight (78 males and 70 females) participants with mean age of 31.28 +/- 9.54 years were included. Out of them 69 (40 males and 29 females) were clinical cases of depression, mania and psychosis with mean age of 33.26 +/- 9.51 years. Seventy nine (38 males and 41 females) were normal individuals with mean age of 29.54 +/- 9.29 years of the demographics corresponding to the clinical population. Independent t-test revealed a significant difference in perceived childhood father acceptance-rejection between clinical and non-clinical population (p < 0.05) and significant gender difference (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: The studied clinical population and male participants perceived to be more rejected by their father during their childhood than non-clinical population and female participants.