Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 8(20) Special 2014, Pages: 5-10 AENSI Journals Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences ISSN:1991-8178 Journal home page: www.ajbasweb.com Corresponding Author: Mariny Abdul Ghani, Psychology and Counseling Program, School of Social Development, Universiti Utara Malaysia. Tel: +604 928 5767, Fax: +604 928 5757, E-mail: mariny@uum.edu.my Psychological Impacts on Victims of Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Approach Mariny Abdul Ghani, Sabasiah Husin, Nadiyah Elias and Adilah Mohd. Zain 1 Psychology and Counseling Program, School of Social Development, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia. ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 19 October 2014 Received in revised form 21 November 2014 Accepted 25 November 2014 Keywords: Psychological impact Domestic violence Abused women Violence against women Background: Very little is known about the actual living experiences of Malaysian women who are in a domestic violence relationship. The study attempts to redress this shortfall by listening to the women‟s stories and understanding their home-life situations. A series of qualitative interviews was employed to explore the abused women‟s accounts in relation to domestic violence impact particularly in the matter of their psychological well-being. Twenty-five women who identified themselves as victims and survivors of domestic violence perpetrated by their husbands/ex-husbands have been recruited as participants in the study. Taken together, eleven interviews had been conducted with the professionals in related organizations such as counselors and social workers. Via the analysis of thematic, four major themes were identified to be the psychological impact of domestic violence, as described by the participants. The findings include traumatic expressions, feelings of disgrace, nightmare occurrences and also thought of being ineffective as parents. Indeed, the interference of cultural values as well as religious beliefs upheld by the Malaysian community was greatly associated with its occurrence. Thus, the study highlights the value of qualitative research that provides an opportunity for these women to express their feelings as well as sharing personal stories with the purpose of making other people better understand the psychological consequences of domestic violence in relation to the abused women‟s mental health well-being. © 2014 AENSI Publisher All rights reserved. To Cite This Article: Mariny Abdul Ghani, Sabasiah Husin, Nadiyah Elias and Adilah Mohd. Zain., Psychological Impacts on Victims of Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Approach. Aust. J. Basic & Appl. Sci., 8(20): 5-10, 2014 INTRODUCTION Domestic violence problem has been identified as occurring across all religions, ethnicities, cultures, ages and economic status (Pyles, L. and J.L. Postmus, 2004). Despite a large number of studies having been conducted around the globe focusing on these abusive relationships, knowledge about abused women‟s experiences is lacking. Notably, the impact of such victimization experiences may have adverse consequences not only for the victims, but their children, families, friends as well as the whole of society. The problem is often described as a family-centered problem and generally understood as patterns of abusive and coercive behavior which may cause physical injuries, psychological and emotional disturbances, sexual intimidation as well as financial oppression of the victim. In fact, it is portrayed as the act of maltreatment of one‟s partner by the other in the context of an intimate relationship. A similar definition, described by (Healey, K., et al., 1998), is that acts of violence and abusive behaviors are used by adults to control and dominate their intimate partners, and is thus classified as domestic violence. The World Health Organizations (WHO) defines violence in the following way: “Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development or deprivation” (WHO), 2009. There are a few key words which similarly describe the term violence in an intimate relationship. The majority of the terms have been used interchangeably by women‟s advocates, domestic violence educators and service provider for instance marital violence, spousal abuse, intimate partner violence and women battering. Some of these terms have a gender-specific connotation, for example „wife abuse‟ and some of them are referring to non-marital relationships such as „dating violence‟. Review of the literature shows there were studies that investigated the impacts of domestic violence on the psychological and emotional aspects of health (El-Bassel, N., et al., Jarvis, K.L., et al., 2005; Che Din, N., et al., 2010; Kumar, S., et al., 2005; Crawford, E., et al., 2009; Sarkar, M., 2010). As example, a number of recent