Comparison of domestic violence in alcohol addicts with healthy controls in terms of gender roles and perceived violence

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the attitudes of alcohol addicted and non-alcoholic men towards partner violence in terms of gender roles and to investigate whether there is a difference in terms of using violence while under the influence of alcohol, when they are sober / clean and during deprivation. For this purpose, the following questions were sought. 1. Whether the frequency of using violence and being exposed to violence is higher in alcohol addicts than healthy volunteers, 2. Whether alcohol-addicted men's attitudes towards gender roles are more traditional than healthy controls 3. Whether alcohol-addicted men perceive domestic violence more normally than he-althy controls, 4. Whether alcohol addicts who use violence against their family members have a hig-her history of violence among family members in their childhood settings, 5. Alcohol addicts are more impulsive than healthy volunteers and whether these char-acteristics are associated with violent behavior, Materials and Methods: The sample of the study; It consists of 57 Alcohol Addiction patients and 57 healthy controls who applied to the AMATEM outpatient clinic. Alcohol Dependence was diagnosed using the SCID-test. In addition, Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test, Gender Roles Scale, Attitudes Towards Marriage Scale, Childhood Trauma Scale, SCID test was applied to the participants in order not to include alcohol-dependent patients with antisocial personality disorder into the study. Statistical evaluation was done by Chi-square test, Kolmogrov-Smirnoff test, Student T test, Mann-Whitney U test and logistic regression analysis. Results: All men participating in the study, both alcohol addicts and non-alcoholics, applied psychological violence to their partners. All of the individuals in the sick alcohol addicted group and 45.6% of the individuals in the healthy control group had physical violence against their partners, 43.9% of the individuals in the sick alcohol addicted group and 22.8% of the individuals in the healthy control group had sexual violence, and the patient in the alcohol addicted group All of the individuals and 63.2% of the individuals in the healthy control group had used economic violence. The average score of the healthy control group from the "Egalitarian Gender Role" sub-field is significantly higher than the average score of the patient group with alcohol dependence. In addition, the average score of the alcohol addicted group in the sub-field of "Female Gender Role, Male Gender Role, Traditional Gender Role and Gender Role in Marriage" is significantly higher than the average score of the healthy control group. In addition, the average score of the alcohol addicted group from the Physical Abuse and Neglect sub-domain of the Childhood Trauma Scale and the total score obtained from the Attitudes towards Physical Violence Against Women in Marriage scale are significantly higher. Conclusion: Alcohol addicts, who display traditional attitudes in terms of gender roles, used more physical, sexual and economic violence against their partners; It has been determined that he experienced more trauma in his childhood and had a more traditional perspective in terms of gender roles. Community-based studies to be carried out to establish egalitarian attitudes regarding gender roles can also provide valuable contributions in terms of violence against women, which is an important problem in our country. Thus, it may be possible to contribute to the development of cultural and personalized treatment programs by determining the factors that affect violent behavior. More research is needed to observe the social repercussions of alcohol addiction, which is an important public health problem. Keywords: Alcohol addiction, violence, gender.