Comparative study of anger and anxiety in normal women and victims of domestic violence referring to Forensic Medicine Center in South Khorasan

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 M.A. in clinical psychology, Islamic Azad University, Branch of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

2 Assistant professor of psychology, Islamic Azad University, Branch of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: In recent decades, violence against women has been considered as the most serious social problem beyond cultural, social and regional borders. Thus, the present research aims to compare anger and anxiety in normal women and victims of domestic violence who referred to Forensic Medicine Center in South Khorasan.
Materials and Methods: the methodology is descriptive and of comparative causative kind. Statistical community includes two groups of abused and ordinary women. Abused group involved all women who referred to Forensic Medicine Center in South Khorasan whom identified as the abused by forensics and physical examinations (in a two months interval, totally 60 persons). The ordinary cases were normal women who referred to Forensic Medicine Center in South Khorasan. To select the sample of abused women, all women who tended to participate in the research were selected as the sample due to the small size of the community; and the ordinary group also was selected with the same number among the normal women who referred to Forensic Medicine Center and had similar demographic features as the abused group including age and educational level. For collecting data, emotional control questionnaire (questions in anxiety and anger dimension) was used. Multivariate variance analysis was used to analyses the research hypothesis.
Results:There is a significant statistical difference between the amount of anger and anxiety between the normal women and abused ones. Moreover, results demonstrated that the mean scores of abused women are higher than the normal ones in anger and anxiety components.
Conclusion: Domestic violence makes to appear many psychological problems for the individual. Accordingly, considering this social problem requires enormous efforts and the authorities’ attention and this study could have a significant achievement for mental health professionals of the country in order to devise some plans for primary and secondary prevention against domestic violence as well as to pave the way for policymakers in regulating rules to reduce domestic violence.

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