Angry Wives, Abusive Husbands: Relationship Between Domestic Violence and Psychosocial Variables

Abstract

Background. A small number of studies conducted in Pakistan have shown high rates of domestic violence. None of the studies, however, discussed associated psychosocial factors. We interviewed a group of women to look at violence and associated psychosocial factors. We wanted to see if self-esteem, quality of relationships, social support, stressful life events, psychiatric symptoms, and different measures of anger were associated with domestic violence.Methodology. In a cross-sectional survey of women presenting to primary care physicians, we used Women's Experience with Battering and Domestic Abuse Checklist to measure domestic violence. The Relationship Assessment Scale, Oslo Social Support Scale, State Trait Anger Inventory, and Evaluative Belief Scale were used to look at the correlates of violence. We used the information in a regression model to identify independent predictors of violence in this sample.Results. More than half of the women reported experiencing battering and/or violence. Women in abusive relationships reported unhappiness with their intimate relationships and had high scores on 1 subscale of anger. Living in extended families was protective against violence.Conclusions. We were able to replicate findings that women in abusive relationships are not satisfied with the relationships with their partners. Living in extended families was protective against violence. Community studies may provide a better design to look at the association between abuse and poverty, literacy, self-esteem, and social support.

Intimate Partner Violence in Pakistan

“…Among the 23 selected studies, only eight examined predictors or risk factors of IPV (Ali, Asad et al, 2011;Farid et al, 2008;Fikree et al, 2006;Fikree et al, 2005;Kapadia et al, 2010;Karmaliani et al, 2008;Naeem et al, 2008;Zareen et al, 2009). The findings of one study (Fikree et al, 2005) suggest that men who report having been physically abused as children are five times more likely to perpetuate physical abuse as adults, whereas men who have witnessed their fathers beating their mothers are 3.5 times more likely to physically abuse their wives (Fikree et al, 2005).…”

“…Availability of social support for women (Farid et al, 2008), women's satisfaction with the intimate partner relationship, and living with the extended family were identified as protective factors against IPV (Naeem et al, 2008). For instance, Kapadia et al (2010) note that "Women, who reported an increased level of social support, were at lower risk of sexual violence.…”

Intimate partner violence and its association with women's reproductive health in Pakistan

“…Clinic-based smallsample studies have reported that, in Pakistan, the lifetime prevalence of IPV ranges from 34% to 57.6% for physical violence [11][12][13], 43% to 97% for psychologic violence [11,14,15], and 21% to 54.5% for sexual violence [11,16]. Nonetheless, there is a lack of studies assessing the association of IPV and reproductive health outcomes.…”

Psychometric characteristics of the Hungarian version of the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS-H)

“…A RAS kulturálisan sokszínû felhasználására példa, hogy alkalmazásá-val idõs ausztrál nõk szexualitását befolyásoló faktorok között kimutatták a párkapcsolati elégedettség szerepét (Howard, O'Neill, & Travers, 2006), pakisztáni nõk esetében pedig a skála alacsonyabb pontszámai érzéke-nyen jelezték a háttérben meglévõ párkapcsolati abúzust (Naeem, Irfan, Zaidi, Kingdon, & Ayub, 2008). Afrikából emigrált és az USA-ban született házaspárok összehasonlítása során pedig azt találták, hogy a házassággal kapcsolatos elõzetes elvárások teljesülése csak az afrikai emigránsok kö-rében jelezte elõre az elégedettséget (Ngazimbi, Daire, Soto, Carlson, & Munyon, 2013).…”