Comparing the effectiveness of spiritual therapy and self-compassion training on antisocial behavior of prisoners (Study case: Birjand prison)

There are antisocial behaviors in any society, and delinquent people and antisocial personalities have a wide range of harmful behaviors, including breaking the law, violating the rights of others, aggression (O'Connell, 2023: 5), defiant in front of official authorities., disruption of social order (Nasaescu, & et al., 2020: 8), damage to public property and theft that lead to their imprisonment (Mahdiani, Farzadi and Faramarzi, 2018: 3). Antisocial behavior includes a series of crimes that occur at a certain time and place (Tarkarani, Moradinejhad and Roshanpoor, 2020: 2) and is observed at different ages.Several studies have been undertaken in the area of establishing intervention programs and examining their efficacy in reducing antisocial behaviors (Damavandian, 2022: 6). Teaching self-compassion is one of these strategies (Afshani and Abou'ee, 2019: 2). Based on Neff & Germer (2017), self-compassion is being kind to oneself, experiencing and being affected by the suffering of others, and it is an effective factor in reducing the occurrence of harmful behaviors (Wu & Zhang, 2023: 7). the riverFurthermore, in this context, the role of spirituality and spiritual education should not be neglected. Beliefs and religious beliefs were extremely important at all times (Hedayati Dana, Saberi and Nasrollahi, 2022: 3). Spirituality is one of the capabilities of humans that provides them with ways to cope and problem-solving strategies (Mousavi et al., 2022: 4). The positive effect of spiritual therapy on psychological well-being (Frogosa, 2022: 20), anger reduction (Muhammad, Sakari & Omar, 2022: 3), drug addiction treatment (Abidin, 2022: 5), psychosocial adaptation (Toledo, Ochoa & Farias, 2021: 3 and 4) is specified.The goal of the current study is to compare the efficacy of spiritual therapy and self-compassion training on the antisocial behavior of prisoners in light of the aforementioned explanations. It appears that self-compassion training and spiritual therapy can be used as intervention methods to reduce the incidence of antisocial behaviors.   

The current research is a semi-experimental type with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research was formed by all prisoners of Birjand city in the first six months of 1400. The number of sample members in this research was made up of 60 male prisoners who were willing to cooperate which had the criteria to enter the research. This number was selected by available sampling and randomly divided into three groups, two experimental groups (20 people), and a control group (20 people). To measure antisocial tendencies, the scale of antisocial behavior of Khademi prisoners (2013) was used, which contains 15 items about antisocial behavior, which was prepared based on the diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV-TR2. This scale is scored on a 4-point Likert scale from never observed (0) to frequently observed (3). While the other experimental group underwent spirituality-therapy with revision (Galanter & Siegel, 2009: 28) in 12 90-minute sessions, the experimental group underwent training based on Gilbert's (2009) package for compassion-therapy, while the control group received no training in accordance with the research's hypotheses and methodology. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23 statistical software. In the descriptive part, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) were used, and in the analytical part, mixed variance analysis test (multivariate covariance) was used to check the research hypotheses. 

Based on the nature of the research, the average and standard deviation of the scores of the components of antisocial tendencies in two stages of measurement are separately given for the experimental and control groups, were studied.To study the effectiveness of spiritual therapy and self-compassion training on antisocial tendencies, univariate covariance analysis was used. Checking a few statistical presumptions is important before running this test. The interaction effect of the group and the pre-test, which was 3043.35 for the sum of squares with three degrees of freedom and the F value was 2.83 at a significance level of 0.08, was the cause of changes in the regression line slope test. The results of the analysis of statistical assumptions showed that the test of the equality of the slope of the regression line, and the precondition of the equality of variances (using Levine's test) are the same for the experimental and control groups (the interaction between the experimental conditions and the covariance variable is not significant) and the use of covariance analysis is unimpeded (p<0.05).The major impact of spiritual therapy and self-compassion training on antisocial behavior inclinations in the post-test is substantial, according to the ANCOVA findings, which exclude the influence of pre-test antisocial tendencies scores as a covariate. The observed difference among the average scores of antisocial tendencies of the participants of the experimental-control groups based on the group membership in the post-test stage is significant with 95% confidence (P<0.05). The intervention rate is 0.45. The adjusted averages are presented in the table, that is, the effect of the pre-test variable was statistically removed.The adjusted averages show that the average score of antisocial tendencies of experimental groups is more reduced compared to the control group. 

The present study was conducted with the aim of surveying and comparing the effectiveness of spiritual therapy, and self-compassion training on the antisocial behaviors of prisoners in Birjand city. The study's findings demonstrate that spiritual and self-compassion-based therapies may both effectively lower the propensity and prevalence of antisocial conduct among convicts. Based on this, the results of the present study, while providing a basis for conducting extensive research on treatments based on spirituality, and self-compassion, help psychotherapists and counselors use these treatment approaches in similar cases to reduce the incidence of behaviors destructive and abnormal use in their clients. Another suggestion of the current research is that in future researches, the community of female prisoners should be used for the effectiveness of mentioned treatments and a comparison of the effectiveness of the treatments in two groups of women and men should be presented. In addition, by using spiritual therapy and self-compassion-based techniques until they are freed from jail, helpers and counselors who provide counseling services to inmates may lower delinquent and antisocial ideas in prisoners. Additionally, it is important to reduce the frequency of these activities among convicts. therapy, therapy based on self-compassion, antisocial behaviors, prisoners.