The present study was conducted to investigate marital adjustment of women living in Turkey and their attitudes towards violence against women.
The study is a descriptive and cross-sectional one. The population of the study included 18-49 year old married women residing in the eastern (Erzurum) and the western (İzmir) part of Turkey. Of these women, 303 who presented to the Family Health Center for any reason and volunteered to participate in the study comprised the study sample. To collect the study data, the Sociodemographic Characteristics Questionnaire, the Attitudes towards Violence against Women Scale and the Marital Adjustment Scale were used.
There was no statistically significant difference between the participants living in İzmir and Erzurum in terms of the mean scores they obtained from the Attitudes towards Violence against Women Scale and its Emotional-Sexual Violence and Descriptive Myths subscales (p > 0.05) The participants living in İzmir obtained statistically significantly higher mean scores from the Economic Violence and legitimizing Myths subscales than did the participants living in Erzurum (p < 0.05). The participants living in İzmir obtained statistically significantly higher mean scores from the Marital Adjustment Scale than did the participants living in Erzurum (p < 0.05).
Although the participants were from different geographical regions, and those from the eastern part of Turkey seemed to be exposed to violence more than did those from the western part of Turkey, the women's attitudes towards violence in general were similar both in the eastern and in the western regions. It is important to organize programs that will raise awareness of women living in different regions regarding their violence-related value judgements and attitudes.