the united nations in a resolution defined abuse as any violent act that is primarily or exclusively committed against females and results in physical , sexual and psychological harm ( 1 ) . this can be done by threat , force , lack of absolute discretion and freedom , which can be hidden or obvious ( 1 ) . abuse against females has various dimensions such as physical ( pushing and hitting with a stick ) , sexual ( ignoring and using force for sexual intercourse ) , economic ( no financial support and taking away the female s income ) and psychological ( frightening by using the threat of divorce and depriving the female to have relationships with others ) . battering is a pattern of behavior that functions to establish power and control over another person through fear and intimidation . domestic abuse significantly increases the risk of psychological distress and physical illness among females ( 2 ) . moreover , the association of psychological distress and physical abuse indicates that the effects of domestic violence may remain for a long period after the actual abuse has ended ( 3 ) . a female is physically abused every nine seconds in america and an estimated three to four million american females are battered each year by their husbands or partners ( 4 ) . a consistent finding running through years of research is that females are much more likely to be harmed by an intimate partner than by a stranger . the federal bureau of investigation ( fbi ) of america has reported that 30% of female homicide victims are killed by their husbands or boyfriends and 25% of all police calls are for domestic violence . in the usa , with an estimated national prevalence of eight to 15 million and an annual incidence of approximately 1.8 million , domestic violence is a major cause of injury , disability , homicide , homelessness , addiction , attempted of suicide and child abuse . nowadays , domestic abuse is a major worldwide social and health concern ( 5 , 6 ) . the prevalence of domestic violence is believed to be higher in developing countries ( 7 , 8) . according to the united nation s report , 27% to 60% of females are injured or maltreated by their husbands ( 9 ) . in chilli , one in four females has experienced physical and one in three , emotional maltreatment from their husbands or partners ( 10 ) . the situation is similar in turkey ( 11 ) and taiwan ( 12 ) . in the usa , with a national sample of 2143 respondents from intact families , aminjafari et al . showed that family violence was not specific to any one race , social class , or neighborhood . in about 24% of families , one spouse has pushed , grabbed or shoved the other at some point in the marriage , 10% have kicked , bit or punched their spouses , and 6% have beaten up their spouses ( 13 ) . research by rabani in isfahan reported that there was no positive relationship between female and male s religious beliefs , degree of education and incidents of abuse ( 14 ) . showed that in esfahan 28% of females have been beaten one to four times by their spouses ( 15 ) . daly et al . demonstrated that the most prevalent type of abuse was verbal and psychological ( 34% to 63% ) , and in iran , a national research conducted in 30 states by the interior ministry reported the prevalence of female abuse as 66% ( 16 ) . the present research was an attempt to study effective elements on the degree of husband s abuse against females of behshahr and their influence on socio - economic factors . in order to collect data on demographic characteristics of the population under study , the researchers distributed a questionnaire among 380 married females aged 15 to 65 , to complete for the past year . according to morgan s table , the subjects were selected from a target population of 30100 married females aged 16 to 60 years ( the target population was those included in a national survey performed during 2011 ) residing in behshahr within the last year . the sampling method used was cluster random sampling , and using this sampling technique , the researchers selected five regions or neighborhoods of behshahr through maps . the educated females completed the questionnaire themselves while interviewers filled the questionnaire for the illiterate subjects . the questionnaire used in this research was produced and adapted from the study of straus ( 4 ) , and included 10 general and 50 particular questions . we studied six types of abuse namely physical , economic , social , sexual , psychological and verbal , within the past year . for confidentiality , the demographic data and data on spouse abuse were analyzed using the spss software version 17 with the spearman , kendal and pearson tests and regression analysis . according to cronbach s alpha coefficient , the reliability of the questionnaire was calculated as 0.96 , indicating good internal consistency . moreover , the researchers , who analyzed the component items of this questionnaire in different experiments , confirmed its validity . according to the obtained results based on table 1 , the females had experienced abuse at all degrees . furthermore , 83.1% of females experienced one type of abuse in the minimum range , while 13.3% in the medium range , and 3.4% experienced a higher range of abuse in the past year . statistical values : r = 0.452 ( multiple correlation coefficient ) , r square = 0.204 , f = 9.594 , sig . constant = a fixed number , a variable whose value can not be changed once it has been assigned a value . the results of our study indicate that all of the females have experienced one type of abuse in the past year . in our sample , 70.6% of the females reported verbal abuse in the low range ( 70.6% ) , medium range ( 25% ) and high range ( 3.9% ) . concerning psychological abuse , the violence range for the low , medium and high categories was 40.5% , 35.3% and 6.8% , respectively . as for sexual abuse , 71.8% of females experienced this in the past year , while 9.5% of females experienced social abuse . economic abuse was experienced by 45.7% of females , while physical abuse was experienced by 34.3% at the lower range and 7.5% at the high range . this is in agreement with the results of some other studies . according to ghahhri et al . in sari , musavi and fatemi in rasht , and poorghaz and raghibi in gorgan , as well as in our study , the degree of violence against females in the northern area of iran is higher ( 18 - 21 ) . narimani and mohammadian studied the rate of male s abuse against females in the city of ardebil . their results indicated that the rate of psychological violence was 55.5% , social violence 30% , and physical violence was 28.5% in the studied families . moreover , male s frustration had a significant correlation with violence against females ( 21 ) . ( 2009 ) in the city of ahvaz indicated that 83% of their sample experienced psychological and physical abuse , 72.5% psychological and 27% physical abuses ( 22 ) . this problem can be explained by durkheim s viewpoint , because the northern areas of iran are developing from a traditional society ( mechanical ) to a modern one ( organic ) . in this situation , as durkheim suggests , a kind of abnormality in the social institution such as family and couple s roles exist that can contribute to their conflict . moreover , violence against females is widespread among all age groups , social and economic categories ( 23 - 25 ) . females of all ages have experienced violence , however , it is more evident within the 20 - 29 age group , while males aged between 25 and 39 have been shown to use more violence toward females . the correlation between years of marriage and violence indicates that when years of marriage increase , the degree of violence against females decreases . younger females and females with low level of education have been shown to be vulnerable to more physical and emotional abuse ( 26 ) . similar to other studies ( 18 , 20 , 21 ) we found such association with husband s younger age and lower level of education . since early prevention will reduce the incident of domestic violence , females and children will benefit from intervention strategies , improving victim s awareness . furthermore , training of police officers and public health services regarding domestic violence will be an asset to the wellbeing of females , children and their families . the type of risk factors for domestic violence appears to be similar in various societies around the world , regardless of their religious and cultural backgrounds .
background : the united nations in a resolution defined abuse as any violent act that is primarily or exclusively committed against females and results in physical , sexual and psychological harm.objectives:the aim of this research was to study the contributing factors of husband s violence against females residing in the city of behshahr , iran.materials and methods : we distributed a specifically designed questionnaire among 380 married females aged between 15 and 65 years . according to the morgan table , the subjects were randomly selected from a list of 301000 females . 
 demographic data and data on spouse abuse were then analyzed using the spss software , spearman and pearson correlation coefficients . according to cronbach s alpha , 
 the reliability of the questionnaire was 0.96.results:all of the females reported at least one form of violence within the past year , with r square 0.20 , indicating that the independent variable can explain 20% of the violence against females . 
 years of marriage , female s education , male s addiction and the number of children each had their share in the explanation of violence against females.conclusions:this study revealed a high prevalence of domestic violence in the sample population . 
 violence existed among all ages , social categories and male occupational groups , and also involved both employed and unemployed females . 
 the situation regarding domestic abuse is similar worldwide .