Examining the authoritarianism of the clients of Shiraz Central Prison based on age, gender and family status

One of the strong tendencies in human beings is "authoritarianism" or "power-seeking" and includes people who want to dominate others in their social relations; They want to be at the top of the family power pyramid, and when they are at a higher level, they seek to dominate their subordinates. Different situations and states affect authoritarianism. One of the places where such behaviors are abundant is the prison.

The aim of this study was to predict the degree of authoritarianism of clients in Shiraz Central Prison based on age, gender and marital status.

This study was a descriptive correlational study. For this purpose, among the central prisoners of Shiraz, 374 people were selected by simple random sampling. Data were collected through the Skinner et al.’s (2005) authoritarianism in the family questionnaire and the Skinner et al.’s (2005) parenting style questionnaire. Then, the data were analyzed using univariate t-test, correlation coefficient and one-way analysis of variance with SPSS software.

The results showed that the mean score of the client’s authoritarianism variable was 3.57, which is higher than the cut-off point 3 (mean scale) and was significance level of p <0.01; This indicates the high level of authoritarianism of the clients. There is a negative and significant relationship between age and authoritarian behavior of clients in Shiraz Central Prison at significance level of p<0.01. It can also be said that men with an average authoritarianism scale of 3.136 have more authoritarian behavior towards women and finally there is a significant difference between clients' authoritarianism and their marital status (being a divorce-child, divorced and normal group). Which indicates that high authoritarian behavior in the children from divorced families was at the level of p<0.001.

It seems that the factor of imprisonment, age, gender and family status play an effective role in the degree of authoritarianism. However, attention to such factors in the degree of authoritarianism can be considered by researchers in more examples and different cultures for managing authoritarian behavior.