Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

ackground & Aims: Domestic violence, which is often called intimate partner violence, is usually directed at women and includes any physical, psychological, or sexual abuse. The most common form of violence against women worldwide is domestic violence or physical and emotional violence and sexual abuse of women by their emotional partners. Women are not the only victims of domestic violence. Sometimes they commit violence, but usually, the violence committed by women is more of the type of violence to defend themselves, on the other hand, the violence committed by men is mostly behaviors aimed at forced control. However, women are estimated to comprise 85% to 95% of victims. Youth exposed to parental violence are more likely to be victims of bullying or cyberbullying and are less likely to seek professional help. Various factors, including mental health issues such as antisocial and borderline personality disorders, anger and controlling behaviors, contextual factors such as childhood abuse experience, poverty, and economic crises, social factors, and lack of gender justice play a role in the occurrence of violence. Surveys conducted in different parts of the world show that ten to more than fifty percent of women have been mistreated by their husbands in some way, and nearly one-third to half of them have experienced physical abuse along with psychological violence. The economic and psychological burden of domestic violence is associated with a wide range of broad and negative consequences for society. From a societal perspective, the costs of being a victim of violence are extensive. These costs include costs related to increased health care use, such as emergency room and doctor visits, costs related to legal services, costs related to lost productivity and absenteeism, job instability, and reduced academic achievement. The existence of violence among family members leads to mental and emotional injuries; therefore, this research aimed to understand and analyze women's experience of domestic violence, the injuries caused by it, and their coping strategies during the Covid-19 era.

Methods: Domestic violence against women is a phenomenon with broad concepts and dimensions. In this study, by using the phenomenological method, an attempt is made to obtain a deep understanding and recognition of the lived experiences of women who have been subjected to violence; the participants of this research are 12 women who had first-hand experience of the studied phenomenon. This number continued based on data saturation until we felt that new information would not be obtained, but to be sure, two more interviews were also conducted, but of course, no new data was obtained and the study reached theoretical saturation. The data were analyzed using the seven-step colaizzi method. Also, to validate the results, the findings were informed to the participants and explained to them, and their opinions were sought over the phone. This step was done by the main researcher, who all the participants confirmed the accuracy of the results and acknowledged that the results of this research fully reflected their feelings and experiences. In addition, all typed interviews and extracted concepts and coding were emailed to a distinguished professor at Kansas State University who has authored more than a hundred articles on the topic of intimate partner violence. This researcher has also conducted studies on violence in Iran. All levels were approved by him. Finally, the use of different processes led to the validity, transferability, verifiability, and reliability of the study. The research tools in this study included the following: During the interview, the conversations were recorded with the consent of the interviewees to check the information carefully. The data was collected through an in-depth and open-ended semi-structured interview. The researcher's preference was face-to-face interviews, but two of the interviews were conducted online at the request of the participants and the other ten interviews were conducted face-to-face at the counseling center following the protocols. All interviews were recorded and then transcribed verbatim in Persian; By asking general questions about the conditions and situations where the violence happened, one of the researchers tried to get the participants to enter into a conversation, and by gaining the trust of the participants and creating an empathetic dialogue, a suitable space for presenting honest answers. In this study, the duration of the interview varied from 45 minutes to 90 minutes. For coding and analyzing the data, the seven-step Claysey method was used.

Results: Data analysis (11 sub-themes and 2 main themes) shows the vulnerability caused by violence (psychological and personality vulnerability, children's vulnerability, couple's relationship vulnerability, spouse's family vulnerability, physical vulnerability) vulnerability of high-risk behaviors) and women's coping strategies to prevent more violence (searching for new hobbies, seeking help from family and relatives, seeking professional help, taking refuge in religion and spirituality, taking refuge in the law).

Conclusion: Based on the experience of women, the results of this research showed that domestic violence, especially in stressful situations and crises, leaves a lot of vulnerability in different areas of the family system. Also, women have experienced different solutions to reduce violence. It seems that the professional help of counselors and psychiatrists based on psychological interventions and drug therapy has been more effective to control anger, and aggression and restore the relationship. Health officials must pay as much attention to mental and psychological issues as physical issues and psychological services are covered by insurance. Face-to-face interviews in pandemic conditions with masks and compliance with health protocols had limitations. Also, due to the norms of the society and customs as well as respect for modesty, it was not easy for the participants to talk about the violence along with the audio recording, especially since honor and keeping the behavioral problems of family members a secret is a cultural value. Domestic violence is related to all members of the family. It is better to research violence from the perspective of men and children to understand the needs, desires, and concerns of all family members. Also, the participants of this study were from the urban middle class, and there is a much more serious level of violence in the lower classes of society and marginalized people, which needs research.