title: Premarital mental disorders and physical violence in marriage: cross-national study of married couples.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mental disorders may increase the risk of physical violence among married couples.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To estimate associations between premarital mental disorders and marital violence in a cross-national sample of married couples.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1821 married couples (3642 individuals) from 11 countries were interviewed as part of the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Initiative. Sixteen mental disorders with onset prior to marriage were examined as predictors of marital violence reported by either spouse.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Any physical violence was reported by one or both spouses in 20% of couples, and was associated with husbands' externalising disorders (OR = 1.7, 95% CI 1.2-2.3). Overall, the population attributable risk for marital violence related to premarital mental disorders was estimated to be 17.2%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Husbands' externalising disorders had a modest but consistent association with marital violence across diverse countries. This finding has implications for the development of targeted interventions to reduce risk of marital violence.
authors.affiliation: Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, California 95817, USA. elizabeth.miller@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Breslau
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petukhova
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fayyad
authors.forename: Jennifer Greif
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: Lola
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kola
authors.forename: Soraya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Seedat
authors.forename: Dan J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: Adley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsang
authors.forename: Maria Carmen
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Viana
authors.forename: Laura Helena
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Andrade
authors.forename: Koen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Demyttenaere
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: de Girolamo
authors.forename: Josep Maria
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Haro
authors.forename: Chiyi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Elie G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Karam
authors.forename: Viviane
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kovess-Masfety
authors.forename: Toma
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tomov
authors.forename: Ronald C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Kessler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007389:Internal-External Control; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014944:World Health Organization; D055815:Young Adult