Attachment Styles, Marital Conflicts, Coping Strategies, and Sexual Satisfaction in Spouse Abused and Non- Abused Women

Introduction: Intimate partner violence refers to any behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes emotional, physical and sexual problems to victims. Coping strategy as significant factors in mental health is defined as behavioral and psychological attempts to control stress and confront stressful situations.

Aims: This study aimed to compare spouse abused and non- abused women in attachment styles, marital conflicts, coping strategies and sexual satisfaction.

Methods: This is a comparative study. Statistical population of study consisted of all women who had referred to healthcare centers in Alborz province during February-May 2017. All of women filled spouse abuse questionnaire and 300 c spouse abused women compared with 300 non- abused women. Both groups were similar in terms of age, education level, number of children, and living place using convenience sampling method. Sample members filled out Sanaee’s Marital Conflict Questionnaire, Endler and Parker (1990) Coping Strategies Inventory, Hudson et al. (1981) Sexual Satisfaction Scale, and Collins and Reid (1990) Attachment Scale. Data analyzed by t test, Pearson correlation coefficient, MANCOVA and Levin test through SPSS-21 Software.

Results: Results showed that spouse women had more marital conflicts, insecure attachment, dysfunctional coping strategies and less sexual satisfaction than non-abused women (0/000).

Conclusion: There were insecure attachment style, more marital conflicts, and dysfunctional coping strategies, less sexual satisfaction in spouse abused women.