Domestic violence is considered as one of the most prevalent problems in families around the world that often goes unreported. This phenomenon includes, both, violence against the child and the spouse. In general, the result of most of the studies done in this area indicates that the underlying causes of this phenomenon include socio-cultural, family, and personal factors. In other words, these studies have identified the causes of domestic violence at different levels of the society namely socio-cultural and individual factors which can lead to the occurrence of family violence. Given the importance of domestic violence and its physical and psychological impact on family, the present study attempted to identify the main factors which cause the occurrence of domestic violence in Tehrani families. To do this, researcher-made questionnaires were distributed amongst couples referring to family courts to file for divorce because of domestic violence. Our results showed that men identified factors such as lack of verbal communication and their wife’s complaint’s about children were mostly the main causes of their disagreements. On the other hand, women believed that factors such as husbands’ overprotection, complaint about food and lack of cooperation in house chores were the main causes of disagreements. Furthermore, the obtained results indicated significant relationship between domestic violence and false cultural beliefs. Therefore, the present study showed that in order to explain domestic violence one needs to take into account a variety of factors which is an indication of the complexity of this undesirable phenomenon.
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