Wife abuse and its psychological consequences as revealed by the First Palestinian National Survey on violence against women

The article focuses on the incidence of wife abuse and battering and some of its psychological consequences, as revealed in the First Palestinian National Survey, which was conducted with a national systematic random sample of 2,410 women from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The findings indicate that the Palestinian women had experienced high levels of psychological abuse, physical violence, sexual abuse, and economic abuse during the 12 months preceding the study. In addition, analysis of variance revealed that women who had experienced those patterns of abuse expressed higher levels of psychological distress, anger, and fear than did nonabused women. Furthermore, regression and multiple regression analysis revealed that significant amounts of the variance in women's psychological distress, anger, and fear are explained by their experiences with abuse and battering as well as by some of their sociodemographic characteristics.