A Comparison of Coping Strategies in Iranian Female Victims of Different Types of Intimate Partner Violence

AbstractIntroduction: Spouse abuse is defined as physical, sexual, and psychological-emotional violence committed by a spouse against his wife that is a widely variable phenomenon. The present study was conducted to compare coping strategies for stress in Iranian female victims of spouse abuse of different types in the city of Ilam.Methods: The present cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 150 females with an experience of spouse abuse during the one-year leading up to the study, selected through convenience sampling. The study tools included the World Health Organization Violence against Women instrument and the Endler and Parker Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. Data were analyzed using the SPSS-22 software.Results: All of the participants had experienced at least one type of psychological violence (100%). Some of them had also experienced physical (94%) and sexual (67.3%) violence in the past year. Emotion-focused strategies were the dominant style used by most of the females (48%) in coping with stress. Certain demographic variables, such as the couple›s low literacy, were associated with emotion-focused and avoidance coping strategies. The use of problem-focused strategies increased significantly with household size (r = 0.17 and P = 0.039). One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed that physical violence was associated with an increase in avoidance strategies and sexual and psychological violence with an increase in emotion-focused strategies. The results of the multivariate linear regression showed that only sexual violence could predict emotion-focused strategies (β = 0.216 and P = 0.01).Conclusions: Given the high prevalence of spouse abuse, teaching certain life skills, such as problem-solving and alternative problem-focused behaviors instead of focusing on emotion and stress could be effective in coping with stressful life situations, help improve interpersonal relationships, and prevent harm caused by violence

Gender differences in the health status of elderly living alone, compared to those who are not alone: Evidence of the AHAP study, North of Iran

Background: One of the factors that have impact on the health status of elderly people is living alone. This study was conducted to examine the living condition of elderly population in Babol and probable differences which this condition induced on the health disorders of elderly people. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 1544 elderly people aged 60 and over in Amirkola, Babol. Demographic characteristics, the incidence of falls, chronic diseases, polypharmacy, headache with uncertain cause, chronic pains and back pain were collected by the study questionnaire; social support, physical activity, depression and cognitive disorders were assessed with standard questionnaires. Results: 6.8% of elderly people were living alone. Lack of social support, cognitive disorders, depression, multiple chronic diseases, occurrence of falls and headache with uncertain cause were significantly higher among those elderly who live alone (p<0.05). Regardless of age and educational level, headache and depressive symptoms in male individuals living alone, and falls occurrence in female individuals were significantly more than those who did not live alone (p<0.05 ). Also, in female elderly subjects, the effect of the marital status factor on health-related disorders was more than the effect of living alone factor. Conclusion: Many disorders and disabilities are higher in the elderly people who live alone; also there is a difference in the health status of elderly people who live alone, according to their gender