Assessment of Correlation Patterns in Indicators of Residential People in Marginalized and Non-marginalized Areas with the Rate of Domestic Violence against Their Children

Extended Abstract
Introduction
One of the most important consequences of social developments in the second half of the past
century is expansion of urbanization. The accelerated development of urbanization has been
associated with different consequences and numerous urban pathologies. One phenomenon
appeared in parallel to the rushed urbanization was the expansion of marginalization, which
has been overgrown around the big cities. Marginalization, in Iran, in the past years has created
social, economical, cultural, security and environmental problems in the metropolitans. It has
unprecedentedly caused a plenty of crimes and delinquency, in particular the domestic violence
against children and women in poor areas and lower classes of society due to economical and
cultural issues as well as housing conditions and other factors. These social harms are
continually increasing in such areas.
So, this issue not only has faced the judicial system with a great challenge, but it is also very
hazardous culturally, socially, economically, mentally and politically.
Hence, the present research focuses on the two following questions: first, how is the rate of
domestic violence against the children in the Ahwaz- marginalized area? Second, to what extent
the residential indicators of marginalized and non-marginalized areas (housing conditions,
socio-economic status, ethnicity and previous record of substance abuse) are related to domestic
violence against children?
Methodology
The methodology of this study is a combination of descriptive (survey one) and analytical, for
which the exploratory studies were performed through library search and preliminary visit and
field study using research tools.
The population is whole the students (14-18 ages) attending in second school and are now
living with their parents in 8- zone districts of both Ahwaz- marginalized and non-marginalized
areas in 2013-2014.
Assessment Tools
1. Child Abuse Questionnaire: in the present study, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire
(CTQ) (Brainstein 1995) was used. It is a self-reporting tool and is used for assessing the
abusing of childhood. The CTQ measures the abusing in five subscales and gives a total
score, indicating the Global Maltreatment scale. The five subscales of CTQ include
Emotional Abuse (EA), Physical Abuse (PA), Sexual Abuse (SA), Emotional Neglect (EN),
and physical Neglect (PN).
2. The Residential Indicators of Marginalized: This author- made questionnaire is dedicated to
assessing the housing circumstances and its quality (house area, ownership, number of
rooms).
3. Socio-economic Status Questionnaire: In order to measure the socio-economic status, the
Duncan (1986)’s socio-economic status scale, the most widely used scale in the social
research, was employed and the three factors were considered as the basis of socioeconomic
status of the subjects: job, income and education level.
4. Ethnicity: In this research the ethnicity means one of the ethnicities of Fars, Arabs, Lurs,
Turks and others which are measured by one item.
5. Previous Record of Abuse Substance: This means the dependence of one of the parents on
substances that are frequently used by them. In this study, the previous records of abuse
substance is assessed on the basis of two items of addict record and regular drug use such as
opium, morphine, heroin by one of the parents.
6. Demographics Questionnaire: This questionnaire is employed to collect the demographic
data and independent variables such as age, gender, education and number of family
members.
To analysize the data, the statistical parameters like percentile, mean, standard deviation,
Pearson correlation, T test and regression analysis were used. In order to measure the validity of
questions, 40 questionnaires were first filled by the subjects and the validity coefficient was
measured by Chronbach Alpha, so that the strength of the items is consistently specified. After
having filled the questionnaires by respondents, the data were processed by using the SPSS
software at two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results and Discussion
The results show that there is a significant correlation between total residential indicators in
conditions (house area, ownership and number of rooms) of marginalized and non-marginalized
people with rate of domestic violence against their children.
The findings were consistent with those of Mohsani Tabrizi (2004), Mohammad Khani (2008)
Mansoure Aazamzadeh (2006), Shahab (2004), Mary (1981), Fisher Nasl & Greenberg (1992),
Ruhr & Williams 1982) who believes that the life in the margin areas and living in the house with
small spaces result in distress, anomie and poor social bonding and loss of social support.
The findings also indicate there was a significant correlation between socio-economic status
of marginalized and non-marginalized with rate of domestic violence against children.
The findings of this research are consistent with some of the sociology theories of deviations,
social disorganization, ecological theory and structural strain theory as well as with Merton
(1975) and Shaw Mc kay (1942) who believe that the feeling of deprivation in the families with
lower socio-economic status, lack of conditions appropriate to life, job status, education level
and parent’s income should be taken into account as family indicators. This is because they have
a significant effect on outbreak of dispute and violence in the families and finally they make an
individual violent. The results also showed that there was no significant correlation between
ethnicity of the marginalized and non-marginalized with rate of domestic violence against
children. The possible reasons for rejecting the above hypothesis is that: i) each of ethnics (Lurs
and Arabs) in the population was not very low minority, ii) both Lurs and Arabs were equal in
the most of features and their mean violence was also generally equal by iii) lack of suitable
basis for comparing both of the ethnics in committing violence against children.
The findings indicated that there was a significant correlation between records of drug abuse
of marginalized and non-marginalized with domestic violence against children.
The present results are consistent with those of Mohammad Khani (1998), Ahmadi (2004),
Sotode (1997) Prak & Burges (1928) who showed that the high rate of crime and delinquency
among adults, increases the addict to drugs and lead to maltreatment and violence against
children and spouses
Conclusion
Generally, the results from present research, which are consistent with ecological, social
disorganization, deprivation and structural strain theories, found that people residing in the
margins tend to commit crime and violence because of having socio-economic problems such as
poor subsistence status, low income, and unsuitable housing and so on. Therefore, it is
recommended that urban facilities and services and job opportunities should be equally
distributed and that enhancing the life quality of marginalized neighborhoods and the parents
must be given social and relational education in order to treat accurately with children.