The Journal of

Background and Purpose: The World Health Organization declared violence against women a top priority for health and emphasized the importance of the world's attention to the prevention and control programs. This study was conducted aimed to identify the training needs of married women referring to health centers in Ahvaz with the objective of enabling the design of a program to prevent violence.

Methodology: This sectional study consisted of two qualitative and quantitative studies. In qualitative study, the opinions of 30 married women residing in Ahvaz were collected and analyzed in four focus group discussions. using a validated and reliable questionnaire, the knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy and performance of 320 married women in area of domestic violence were identified

Findings: 79% of the women surveyed had adequate awareness about violence against women. 34% of the target group in the field of domestic violence against women has had the right attitude and more than 80% of them stated that violence by men is considered inevitable and natural. 89% of the target group expressed lack of efficacy for the prevention of domestic violence against women. The findings also suggest that there is significant relationship between education and early marriage with violent behavior.

Conclusion: providing proper education and awareness to women and group discussion and clarification in order to change attitudes and increase efficacy in abused women against domestic violence are the necessary strategies which result in changing attitudes of women and increasing empowerment of women against domestic violence.