Mental Health Aspects of Turkish Women from Polygamous Versus Monogamous Families

Mustafa Ozkan, Abdurrahman Altindag, Remzi Oto and Esin Sentunali
Additional contact information
Mustafa Ozkan: Dicle University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Diyarbakir, Turkey
Abdurrahman Altindag: Harran University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Sanliurfa, Turkey aaltindag@yahoo.com
Esin Sentunali: Dicle University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Diyarbakir, Turkey

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2006, vol. 52, issue 3, 214-220

Abstract: Background: Polygamy is illegal in Turkey, but is common among rural villagers in the southeastern region. Polygamous marriage may have a negative effect on the wives involved. Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of the relationship between psychiatric disorder and polygamous marriage. Method: The mental status of 42 senior and 46 junior wives from polygamous marriages and 50 wives from monogamous marriages was evaluated using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) and Somato-form Dissociation Questionnaire (SDQ). Results: There was a statistically significant difference among senior, junior and monogamous wives in terms of the prevalence of somatization disorder. The prevalence of somatization disorder was the highest in polygamous senior wives. The mean total SDQ scores differed significantly among the three groups. It was the highest in senior wives. Conclusions: It is clear that the participants from polygamous families, especially senior wives, reported more psychological distress. It is essential to increase awareness of the significance of polygamous family structures among psychiatrists and other therapists.

Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764006067207 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:52:y:2006:i:3:p:214-220

DOI: 10.1177/0020764006067207

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().