Objective:

This study was planned for the purpose of determining the effect of exposure to violence during pregnancy on self-esteem.

Material and Methods:

A comparative and descriptive study which is conducted on 164 pregnant women with 26 women exposed to violence during pregnancy and 138 women without exposure. Data were collected with the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Chi square, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests were used in the analysis of the data.

Results:

Women’s mean age in the study was 26.35±5.10. Of the women 16% reported that they had been exposed to any type of violence during pregnancy, of these women 69% had been exposed violence by their husband. It was determined that there was no statistically significant difference regarding age, occupation and educational level among two groups of women. It was determined that women who had been exposed violence during pregnancy had more incidence of abortions. The mean of self-esteem scale was 36.91±2.65 for women who had been exposed to violence, 38.71±3.59 for women who had not been exposed to violence (p=0.003). It was determined that there was a significant relationship between “exposing to violence” and “number of abortions”.

Conclusion:

The women in this study who had been exposed to violence during pregnancy had lower self-esteem than those who had not.

Keywords: Domestic violence, pregnant women, self-esteem