The comparison of spiritual health and self-esteem in women with and without sexual violence

Abstract

Background and aimSexual violence is a serious public health problem which is common around the world. The aim of this study was to evaluate spiritual health and self-esteem in sexual violence victims.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was performed on 66 subjects in the group of sexual violence women and 147 subjects in the group of women with no experience of sexual violence who referred to Tehran Forensic Medical Center and the health centers of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences respectively, in 2015, in Tehran, Iran. Sexual violence was considered as vaginal or anal penetration. Paloutzian & Ellison spiritual health questionnaire and Rosenberg self-esteem scale were used for data collecting. Data were analyzed using IBM-SPSS version 21. The Kolmogorov Simonov test was used for normality distribution of variables. Descriptive and the Mann-Whitney tests were used to analyze the data. Statistical significance was set to p<0.05.ResultsSexual activity in both groups was started at 20 years old. Most of the abused subjects were single (48.8%), with education level below diploma (55.2%), unemployed (67%) and with an average annual income of 200 million Rials ($7,000). Familiarity with the offender was mostly as friendship (42.4%), and the offence had occurred through deception (37.8%). No significant difference was found between the total mean scores of self-esteem in the two groups (M1: 21.89, M2: 21.02; p=0.76) while a significant difference was seen between the mean scores of spiritual health, which indicates a lower level of spiritual health in women with sexual violence (M1: 74.59 (2.03), M2: 86.39 (3.12); p<0.001).ConclusionThe results of the present study highlight the importance of spirituality in sexual violence so policies to promote spiritual health are recommended to protect women.

A Correlational Study Between Attachment Behaviors and Spiritual Health with Stress in Pregnant Women Referred to Healthcare Centers in Qazvin, Iran, in 2015

“…The score was divided into three categories of 20 -40 (low), 41 -99 (moderate), and 100 -120 (high). The Persian version of SWS has been used in studies by Zareipour et al (2016), Riazi et al (2017), and other studies, and its reliability has been confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.76 and 0.8 (16,19), respectively. In this study, the reliability of the scale was verified by a Cronbach's alpha of 0.85 and a test-retest coefficient of 0.78.…”

Effect of Vitamin D on the Vaginal Health of Menopausal Women: A Systematic Review

“…Vitamin D3 and its receptors form a complex that binds to the Vitamin D3 response element of genes and either positively or negatively affects the transcription of that gene [18,19]. The importance of this review: Being free of sexual problems can improve the confidence and mental state of women [20]; therefore, it is important to resolve sexual problems associated with menopause. Accordingly, vitamin D may be useful in vaginal discomfort in menopause women [7,[21][22][23]; however, some experimental results are controversy [24,25].…”