Domestic Violence Against Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Objective: Domestic violence against women is an important public health problem worldwide and in Türkiye. This study aimed to analyze participants' demographic characteristics, violence levels, and relations between the two. Materials and Methods: 308 women participated in the study online via “Google Forms”. Participants answered "Sociodemographic Characteristics and Data Form" and “The Severity of Violence Against Women Scale”. As a method inside SPSS, descriptive statistical analysis and nonparametric tests were used in analysis of the data. Results: It has been determined that demographic characteristics of participants are better than average for Türkiye. Proportion of women who have been subjected to violence in at least one sub-category by not answering "never" to all questions is 43.8%. 41.6% of participating women did not answer "never" to all questions about the threat dimension, 14% about the actual violence dimension, and 7.5% about the sexual violence dimension. In comparative analyzes, a significant difference or a significant correlation couldn’t be detected for most part. Conclusion: Frequency of not answering "never" to all questions in the violence dimensions except the "threat dimension" was low. Level of violence was found low in all sizes. It is recommended that the study be repeated under better conditions.