THE IMPACT OF SPIRITUAL COUNSELING ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN PREGNANT WOMEN: A CLINICAL TRIAL

Background & Aims: Given the high prevalence of domestic violence in pregnant women and the impact of religious beliefs on people's perceptions of their lives and lifestyles in life-style crises such as anger and aggression, this study aimed to determine the effect of spiritual counseling on the degree of domestic violence in pregnant women. Materials & Methods: This is a clinical trial that was conducted on pregnant women referred to four comprehensive health services centers in Tehran in 2018. The subjects were randomly assigned to two groups of intervention (n = 30) and control (n = 30). The intervention was conducted in eight, 60-minute individual counseling sessions. Violence was assessed with Violence Assessment. Chi-square test and repeated measures test with significant level (p <0/05) were used to analyze the data. Results: At first, the normality of the scores of violence was assessed and confirmed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro tests (P <0.05). At first, the normality of the scores of violence was assessed and confirmed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro tests (P <0.05). The two groups did not have a significant difference in terms of age, education of mothers and their spouses, the occupation of mothers and their wives, financial status, the number of pregnancies, and the desire for pregnancy were not statistically significant. After the intervention, the comparison of mean scores of violence in mothers between the two groups showed a significant difference (p> 0.03). Conclusions: Spiritual counseling is effective in domestic violence in pregnant women. Therefore, the use of this counseling technique can have positive outcomes in terms of domestic violence and spiritual well-being in pregnant women.