The impact of wife abuse on marital relations as revealed by the Second Palestinian National Survey on Violence Against Women

Abstract

This article presents findings on the impact of wife abuse on marital relations, as revealed by the Second Palestinian National Survey on Violence Against Women. The study was conducted with a systematic random sample of 1,334 Palestinian women from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The results revealed that compared with their nonabused counterparts, abused wives expressed higher levels of negative patterns of communication with husbands and lower levels of commitment to marriage, marital satisfaction, affection, harmony, and happiness. In addition, the results indicated that substantial amounts of the variance in all six dimensions of marital relations examined are significantly explained by being physically abused, psychologically abused, sexually abused, and/or economically abused, over and above the variance explained by women's sociodemographic characteristics. Recommendations for further research on this topic in Palestinian society are presented.