Analysis of Psychological Spouse Abuse against Men in Iranian Couples: A Qualitative Study

This study aimed to explore the psychological spouse abuse against men in a sample of Iranian couples. This qualitative study used the grounded theory in triangulation. The statistical population consisted of a compilation of electronic resources, books, theses, and journals, family counseling experts’ opinions and men who suffered from spouse abuse in Isfahan. Purposeful sampling began and continued until saturation of the categories. Data collection consisted of 15 semi-structured interviews with abused married men, 10 interviews with family counseling experts and content analysis of books, articles, and journals related to psychological spouse abuse. The results showed that some cases of spouse abuse against the men are neglecting the spouse’ needs, lack of commitment and accountability, arbitrary behavior, turning to anti-moral values and some habits and annoying personality traits. Spouse abuse is rooted in social, religious, economic, environmental, cultural backgrounds and family life. Intervening factors include factors related to the others, personality traits of the abused person and background factors. The causal factors include the interpersonal conditions and personality types. The most important strategy for men against spouse abuse include aggressive-confronting response, silence, peaceful, defense, reform reaction and alternative reaction. The psychological consequences of marital violence include, individual, interpersonal, family, and social consequences. As a result, psychological spouse abuse against men is affected by a number of factors that were discussed in this study.