Prevalence and Predictors of Domestic-Violence towards Wives by their Psychiatric Hospitalized Husbands

OBJECTIVE Violence imposed on wives by their inpatient psychiatric husbands has not been studied yet. The current study surveyed the rates and predictors of violence committed by inpatient psychiatric husbands towards their wives. METHODS A convenient sample of wives of 209 married male psychiatric inpatients completed a self-reported questionnaire. They were asked about physical, emotional, social and economic abuse. RESULTS More than 80% of the husbands socially abused their wives; 73.0% of the wives had been regularly beaten by their husbands; the rate for humiliation was 77.2%; and only 14.1% of the wives reported that their sexual relationship with their husbands is with desire. Conclusion There is a dramatic high rate of different types of abuse toward wives by their inpatient psychiatric husbands. They are commonly victimized by their husbands. Moreover, different types of violence always co-occur. Future studies should consider this important issue which is unfortunately an ignored research area.