Attachment Styles and Degree of The Psychological Symptoms in Women Staying in a Shelter for Battered Women or in Their Home Where They were Exposed to Violence Mine Gezen1,

Attachment styles and degree of the psychological symptoms in women staying in a shelter for battered women or in their home where they were exposed to violence Objective: Surveys in Turkey revealed that one third of women were exposed to physical violence by their partners and 25 % of them lost their lives. The rate of murdered women in the last seven years has increased more than 1400 times. These findings display the importance of the problem. This research has been planned to put forward the attachment styles and identify the psychological symptom levels of women who were subject to violence and living at shelters, and women who were living with their spouses. Methods: The sample of this study consists of 40 women who were subject to physical violence and continue to live with their spouses in the service area of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Counseling Centers, and 40 women who were subject to physical violence and living in three women’s shelters in Istanbul. Symptom Check List (SCL-90), Relationship Scales Questionnaire and socio-demographic form were used for research. Results: The comparison between these two groups were examined. Levels of symptoms related with somatization, obsessive-compulsive features, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, anger-hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism, sleep and eating disorders, feelings of guilt were found high in both groups. Th