Wife Abuse in the Omani Society: An Interdisciplinary Psycho-social Study

Abstract

This interdisciplinary study aims at examining people’s attitudes towards wife abuse in Omani society and identifying a specific concept for wife abuse. For the purpose of this study, a specific questionnaire that addresses specific psychological and social aspects was designed based on other scales. The questionnaire was administered to (336) married men and women from all regions around Oman. For the purpose of this study, it was important to measure the validity and reliability of the questionnaire for use in the Omani context. The validity of the questionnaire was measured using face validity and factor analysis validity. To measure the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach ‘s alpha coefficient was used. Results of factor analysis revealed that the questionnaire consisted of four factors: psychological abuse, harm, insult and humiliation, and control and domination. Results of this research helped identify a specific concept of wife abuse in Omani culture and design a psycho-social measure to examining the attitudes towards wife abuse in Omani society

Keywords

• Interdisciplinary study, psychosocial study, attitudes, wife abuse, psychosocial measure.