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Defense styles and comorbid psychiatric symptoms among convicts, Pakistan

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Abstract

The current study was aimed to differentiate comorbid psychiatric symptoms on the basis of defense styles used by convicts imprisoned in all nine Central Jails of Punjab, Pakistan. Data were collected from 509 male respondents by using the self-reported Cross-Cutting Symptoms Measure and Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40). Translated versions of both scales were used. Results of MANCOVA showed that participants who scored above the threshold on 13 comorbid psychiatric symptoms scored high on Immature Defense Style (IMDS). Participants scoring above the threshold for depressive symptoms also scored high on Mature Defense Style (MDS). Participants with above threshold psychiatric symptoms of mania scored high on all three defense mechanisms. Above threshold, suicidal ideation symptoms, on the other hand, are linked with lower scores on MDS and Neurotic Defense Style (NDS), high scores on IMDS. Convicts with comorbidity above threshold symptoms also scored high on IMDS. Findings have empirically highlighted IMDS as the area be targeted for therapeutic intervention to improve prisoner's mental health.

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Data availability

Data was collected from prison setting and needs third party approval before sharing so, the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

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Funding

No research funding was obtained in the present study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Nimrah Ishfaq

  2. Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Nimrah Ishfaq

  3. Rawalpindi Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

    Anila Kamal

Authors
  1. Nimrah Ishfaq
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  2. Anila Kamal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nimrah Ishfaq.

Ethics declarations

Permission was taken for data collection from Inspector General Prisons Punjab and informed consent was taken from each participant separately after describing them purpose of research and they were made sure that data will be used for research purpose only and will not be share without their consent whereas their identity will be held hidden.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflicts of interests

Nimrah Ishfaq declares that she has no conflict of interest. Prof. Dr Anila Kamal declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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Ishfaq, N., Kamal, A. Defense styles and comorbid psychiatric symptoms among convicts, Pakistan. Curr Psychol 43, 18230–18241 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05616-2

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