RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To determine women's exposure to domestic violence, it's affecting factors and coping methods. METHODS: The descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted from September to December 2017 and comprised married women living in Kesan, a district in the Turkish province of Edirne. A self-generated questionnaire was used to gather sociodemographic data and women's exposure to domestic violence. SPSS 16 was used to analyse data. RESULTS: Of the 586 subjects, 321(55%) were aged up to 40 years, while 265(45%) were aged 41 years or more. Domestic violence was reported by 156(26.6%) women. Beating ranked first among physical violence behavior reported by 83(14.2%) subjects. Name-calling and yelling ranked first among verbal violence behaviour reported by 118(20.1%). Keeping women at a certain distance rankedfirst among emotional violence behaviour, reported by 95(16.2%). Not purchasing the fundamental needs of the home ranked first among the economic violence behaviour, reported by 38(6.5%). Finally, 14(2.4%) reported being physically forced to engage in a sexual act, which ranked first among sexual violence behaviour. From among the women abused, 114(66.7%) women said violence occurred because of the instant anger of their partners, and 69(44.2%)said they did not apply to any officialinstitution for help. CONCLUSIONS: Women preferred to remain silent about domestic violence. There is a need to introduce urgent prevention programmes to end domestic violence.