THE RELATIONSHIP OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND DEPRESSION IN FEMALES AT CHILDBEARING AGE IN THE TOWN OF GOLBASI IN THE PROVINCE OF ANKARA

Objective: The effect of domestic violence on mental health takes a significant place among its results. In many studies performed, it was shown that anxiety, depression, drug use and suicide frequency increased in the females facing violence. In this study, it was aimed to determine potential cases of depression and its influencing factors in females, facing violence and other females, using Beck Depression Scale (BDS). Material and Method: The research is a cross-sectional study conducted applying a survey form and Beck Depression Scale to identify their socio-demographic and cultural attributes and exposure to violence, to the females in the age group between 15 and 49 years in Health Center Region No 2 in the town of Golbasi in the province of Ankara. The research sample constituted of 300 females selected out of 1304 comprising the population through simple random sampling method. Results: 40% of the females involved in the research exposed to domestic violence in the last year. 41,7% of those cases were of emotional violence, 9.2% of physical violence and 3.3% of sexual violence. According to BDS results, the rate of diagnosed depression in the females facing domestic violence, 30.8% is remarkably higher than that in the others, 8.3%. The average of depressive symptom load is high in the females whose education level is elementary school or lower and who are married, not working, a member of an extended family, and/or living in a shanty house. As the education level of their husbands gets higher, marital duration increases over five years and she has an arranged marriage that figure increases. Taking into consideration all these factors as well as domestic violence, exposure of women to violence increases depression element load independently from those factors. Conclusion: It was observed that domestic violence, an important and common problem in Turkey and throughout the world, is the determining factor for depression, which is one of its significant effects on woman's mental health, and the result was reached that for the women in our country, avoiding domestic violence is crucial in protecting themselves from depression.