Correlation of good sexual relatıonships and satisfaction in marriage with the domestic violence in 398 postpartum women in Istanbul

Introduction: The authors started a series of surveys, named as İstanbul Report (IR) on Female Sexuality. This study was a subgroup of the survey series of IR. The correlation of domestic violence towards the spouse and children were investigated among post-partum women. Methods: The survey was realized among the post-partum women after their giving births in various hospitals in İstanbul. There were 58 questions. 398 responses were collected and analyzed in SPSS. The education distribution in the group was: Elementary: 29 %; High School: 53.4 %; University: 16.6 %; MSc &PhD: 0.8 %. The group was divided into two according to their responses: sexually content, satisfied and happy (A, N=295); sexually non-content, not satisfied and having sexual problems with their husbands (B, N=103). Verbal and physical violence by the husbands towards the women and the children, at different degrees, were investigated. Results: 1) In group A; verbal violence towards the women was 16.8 %, physical violence was, 7.5 %; verbal violence towards children was 7.1 %, while physical violence was 3.4 %. 2) In group B; verbal violence towards the women was 27.7 %, physical violence was, 14.7 %; verbal violence towards children was 13.2 %, while physical violence was 7.8 %. When both groups are compared there is a significant difference in terms of the attitude of the fathers. Violence attitude is nearly doubled. 3) There is verbal and physical violence to some degree in the Turkish family structure. Conclusion: Good sexual relationships and sexual satisfaction of the spouses are inversely correlated with the degree and content of the verbal or physical domestic violence; in sexually unsatisfactory relationships, the violence increases; or verbal and physical violence declines sexual relationships. For this reason, structured sexual education given to the public is very essential to improve sexual satisfaction and well-being in Turkey.