The Study of the Role of Childhood Violence Experience and the Patterns of Violence and Intimacy among Married College Students

The purpose of this study was the comparison of the gender differences with regard to domestic violence’s and marital intimacy. Moreover, different aspects and dimensions of violence such as the experience of violence in childhood and couple's intimacy were also studied. The statistical population was the total married college students in three universities of Iran. Four hundred and thirty two married college students were randomly selected from this population. Three following questionnaires were used: a) Marital Intimacy Questionnaire (Persian version); b) Aggression Questionnaire Persian version; c) General Demographic Questionnaire.The data were analyzed using t.test; Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regression. Results indicate that there are no significant gender differences in the total score of intimacy and its other dimensions. Although gender intimacy patterns are similar, significant differences between couples with respect to total score of physical and sexual violences are observed. However, it was revealed that the differences between married couples with regard to economic violence and the experience of violence in childhood were not significant. The results also indicate that there is a significant negative correlation between intimacy and violence. Violence, in general and the experience of violence in childhood, in particular, are the strongest predictors of intimacy. Finally, with regard to different theories of psychology the results have been discussed.Keywords: