Gender Differences between Violence and Intimacy Patterns in Married Iranian College Students

It is an established fact that violence co-occurs with intimate partners in families. the aim of thisstudy was investigation of similarities and differences between intimacy and violence patterns in married collegestudents.methods: three questionnaires were used: 1. marital intimacy questionnaire-persian form. 2. aggressionquestionnaire and 3. general demographic questionnaire. 198 married college students were randomly selectedfrom tehran universities. they answered individually to the questionnaires. the data were analyzed by t-test,chi-square and correlation coefficients.results: there were no significant gender differences in total score of intimacy and other dimensions ofintimacy. but there were significant differences between genders according to total the score of violence(p<0.05), physical (p<0.05), sexual (p<0.05) and verbal patterns of violence (p<0.0001). there were alsocorrelations between some dimensions of intimacy and violent patterns.conclusion: gender differences revealed important similarities and distinctions in husbands and wives'patterns of intimacy and violence. couples with increasing intimacy dimensions can control the violent patternsof behavior. satisfaction in close relationships depends on active participation of both partners.iranian journal of psychiatry and behavioral sciences (ijpbs), volume 3, number 1, spring and sunner 2009: 57-61 .