The men as victims of domestic violence, and the role of demographic variables: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to examine the prevalence of spouse abuse against men and the demographic variables affecting it in Savojbolagh County, Iran. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study on all married men living in Savojbolagh County. The study population consisted of men employed in rural and urban healthcare centers as well as governmental and private companies in this province; 292 participants completed the demographic form and Man Abuse Questionnaire. This questionnaire assesses the different forms of abuse such as emotional, physical, sexual, neglect, and verbal abuse. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation method in SPSS Software. RESULTS: The majority of victims had experienced minor abuse (11.6%) including emotional abuse (15.8%), verbal abuse (13.7%), active aggression and sexual abuse (10.3%), and passive aggression and domination (9.2%). Moreover, 6.2% of the participants had experienced medium rate of abuse including passive aggression (8.6%), active aggression and sexual abuse (7.2%), domination (5.5%), verbal abuse (3.8%), and emotional abuse (3.1%). The remaining 1% had experienced severe abuse the most common forms of which were verbal abuse and domination (1.4%) and emotional abuse (1.0%). The highest frequency of spouse abuse occurred in the first 5 years of marriage among laborers. Moreover, there is a reverse relationship between increasing age of men, marriage duration, and education level and man abuse. However, man abuse had a positive relationship with low income. CONCLUSION: The most prevalent form of violence by women against men in Iran included emotional abuse, verbal abuse, behavioral aggression, and sexual abuse with a severity rate of low to medium. Higher age of men, higher education level, longer marriage duration, sufficient income, and suitable age gap were factors that prevented women’s violence against men.