Juvenile Brides: Domestic Violence in Pregnancy

Background: Juvenile marriage is a violation of human rights. Previous studies state that female children are both subjected to more problems compared to male children and are at more risk in terms of mortality and morbidity. Violence towards woman is a universal problem that is common in every culture and society in the world. It has been reported that domestic violence is higher in juvenile marriages and that it continues during pregnancy. However, there was no study in the literature that researched domestic violence towards married juveniles who are pregnant. Objectives: To assess situation regarding domestic violence towards married pregnant juveniles. Methods: This research was conducted a sectional, descriptive study. The population of the research was formed of females who were pregnant, between the ages of 10 and 19 between January and July 2016, and had married as juveniles. The population of the research consisted of pregnant girls who were between the ages of 10 and 19 between January and July 2016 and who had entered into a juvenile marriage. We planned to reach the entire population without sampling in this study. The research was formed of 79 pregnant juvenile brides in total; (n = 54) registered in twenty family health centers (ASM’s) in the Yenisehir, Kayapinar, Baglar and Sur provinces of Diyarbakir and (n = 25) of them were not registered. percentages, averages, the Fisher exact test and Pearson chi-square tests were used in the analysis of the data. Results: The average age of the pregnant married girls/adolescents who were included within the research was 17.86 ± 1.00. It was found that 26.0% of the pregnant juveniles had been subjected to violence during their pregnancy. They stated that they were subjected, respectively, to verbal (51.9%), physical (26.6%), emotional (27.8%), sexual (11.4%) and economic (11.4%) violence. It was established that exposure to violence was affected by whether the marriage was involuntary or voluntary (P = 0.011) and whether they perceived their relationship status to be good or bad (P = 0.00). Conclusions: Nurses, who encounter individuals face-to-face more than other workers because of the very nature of their roles, have a significant responsibility in this regard.