Research of Marital Adjustment and Domestic Violence Among Physicians

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to determine physicians' level of marital adjustment and their status of exposure to family violence, and to determine the effects of possible factors on marital adjustment and violence. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study performed on a total of 296 married volunteer physicians who served at Van city centrum. The questionnaire form contained Marital Adjustment Test (MAT) to assess marital adjustment. The statistical analysis of the study data was done with One-Way ANOVA and chi-square tests. Results: Our study showed that 56.4% of physicians had marital adjustment in their marriages and 43.6% did not. The mean MAT score of all physicians was 41.99 +/- 9.80; they were generally non-adjusted in their marriages. This research revealed that male physicians were more adjusted in their marriage than their female counterparts. It was also shown that physicians who were satisfied with their working position had a significantly greater MAT score than those who were not. Of the enrolled physicians, 41.6% had a history of domestic violence. The exposed domestic violence was emotional in 81.3%, verbal in 74.8%, economic in 25.2%, physical in 10.6%, and sexual in 1.6%. Female physicians were exposed to domestic violence at a greater rate than their male counterparts. Exposure to domestic violence adversely affected marital adjustment. Discussion: This study showed that physicians are generally non-adjusted in their marriages and approximately half of them were subjected to domestic violence. Marital adjustment and domestic violence are interwoven concepts. Among working individuals, both concepts are affected by working conditions. It may be of significant relevance to study in the future the workplace and non-workplace factors, their interaction, and especially gender-specific discrepancies that may influence family life of physicians.