Domestic Abuse in Behshahr, Iran

BACKGROUND The United Nations in a resolution defined abuse as any violent act that is primarily or exclusively committed against females and results in physical, sexual and psychological harm. OBJECTIVES The aim of this research was to study the contributing factors of husband's violence against females residing in the city of Behshahr, Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS We distributed a specifically designed questionnaire among 380 married females aged between 15 and 65 years. According to the Morgan table, the subjects were randomly selected from a list of 301000 females. Demographic data and data on spouse abuse were then analyzed using the SPSS software, Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficients. According to Cronbach's alpha, the reliability of the questionnaire was 0.96. RESULTS All of the females reported at least one form of violence within the past year, with R square 0.20, indicating that the independent variable can explain 20% of the violence against females. years of marriage, female's education, male's addiction and the number of children each had their share in the explanation of violence against females. CONCLUSIONS This study revealed a high prevalence of domestic violence in the sample population. Violence existed among all ages, social categories and male occupational groups, and also involved both employed and unemployed females. The situation regarding domestic abuse is similar worldwide.