Relationship Between Married Women's Exposure to Spousal Violence and Their Family Planning Attitudes and Behaviors

This study was conducted to find out the relationship between married women's exposure to spousal violence and their attitudes and behaviours towards family planning. The cross-sectional descriptive research design was conducted at four different Family Health Centers in a district in Central Anatolia in Turkey. The sample of the study consisted of 333 married women aged between 18-49. The research data were collected using the Personal Information Form, Screening Form for Violence against Women and the Attitude Scale for Family Planning. It was found that 58.9% of women used a Family Planning(FP) method, 80.1% of the women who used family planning method preferred modern and 19.9% preferred traditional methods. The modern FP methods used by women are, respectively, 27.1% condoms, 23% pill, and 17.3% intrauterin device(IUD). The attitude score of the women benefitting from family planning was higher than those who did not use any FP method (p<0.05). 35.7% of women were exposed to spousal violence and 11.4% had the risk of experiencing violence. It was found that 18.3% of women were subjected to verbal, 12.6% economic, 10.5% physical, and 7.5% sexual violence by their partners. The attitude score of women exposed to spousal violence towards family planning was lower than those who were not exposed to violence (p<0.05). It was found that most of the women had positive attitudes towards family planning but their behaviour was not desirable, about one-third of the women were exposed to violence, and those who were exposed to violence had negative attitudes to family planning.