Effect of contextual factors on women coping strategies against domestic violence: A qualitative study

The domestic violence against women has always been the serious cause of disability and even death among women. The coping behaviors with violence affect mental and physical health and are influenced by contextual factors. Identifying the contextual factors can facilitate designing context-based interventions. This study was conducted to identify contextual factors affecting women’s coping strategies with domestic violence. The study was conducted using qualitative research approach. The participants were 24 married women were selected from parks, health centers and universities of Tehran, using purposive sampling method. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews and analyzed using qualitative content analysis approach. The participants were between 22-72 years of age. The duration of their marriage ranged from 3 to 58 years. The participants’ levels of education were ranged from literate without a high school diploma certificate (12 participants) and with high school certificate (7 participants) to bachelor’s degree or higher (5 participants). All but six were housewives. The majority of participants had 1-2 children. The participants economic status was reported as; appropriate (8 participants), fairly appropriate (12 participants) or poor (4 participants).The contextual factors emerged from data analysis were included availability of resources, fears and worries, marital relationships, and being impressed by the environment. These factors were not only directing the coping strategies, also, were related to each other and changing with time. The women coping strategies against domestic violence are influenced by the contextual factors. Therefore, changes in the contextual factors consequently were changing the way they were coping with domestic violence. Thus considering specific contextual factors would be helpful in designing proper interventions and supportive programs for victims of domestic violence.