Page No 334-338
P.S. Manohar and R. Kannappan
Vinayaka Mission Medical College, Salem
Women experience some form of domestic violence in their life time. Specifically
the wives of alcoholics experience manifolds of physical, psychological and sexual
threats and consequently they develop depression, guilt, tension, fear, loss of trust,
low self esteem and high suicide risk. The purpose of the study was to assess
objectively domestic violence and suicide risk of the wives of alcoholics and nonalcoholics. Retrospective design was used to measure domestic violence and
suicide risk of the wives of alcoholics and non-alcoholics by using suitable
psychological scales. 32 wives of alcoholic patents and thirty two and non-alcoholics
(normal subjects) were the selected for this study. Domestic violence and suicide
risk scales were administered to the patients and accompanying persons of other
psychiatric disorders and demographic variables such as age, religion, income,
education, and occupation were collected from the patients. Percentage, mean,
standard deviation and t-test were used for analyzing and interpreting the obtained
data. Results revealed that the wives of alcoholics and non-alcoholics differed
significantly in physical and psychological aspects of domestic violence but they
did not differ in sexual aspect and the groups differed significantly in suicide risk.
The wives of alcoholics had significantly more domestic violence in physical and
psychological aspects and more suicide risk than the wives of non- alcoholics who
came for treatment to the hospital. The present findings could help the planners to
develop strategy / intervention to reduce the domestic violence and the suicide risk
of the wives of alcoholics for better coping and mental health.
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