Spousal Violence Among Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union—General Population and Welfare Recipients

This study examines psychological and marital risk factors of 322 immigrant FSU couples in Israel. The research focuses on two populations: the general immigrant population and the welfare immigrant population; the latter group is comprised of couples treated in welfare service departments. The dependent variable is spousal violence. The independent variables are: education level, gender, symbolic loss, psychological adjustment (both positive and negative emotions) and the “cultural–familial gap”. Surprisingly, it was found that the welfare immigrant population reports less spousal violence than the regular immigrant population. In addition, a correlation was found between spousal violence and the following factors: higher education, lower level of psychological adjustment and greater familial-cultural gap between the country of origin and Israel. The discussion focuses on the characteristics of FSU immigrants—educational level and orientation towards cultural preservation—within the Israeli context that connects to psychological responses which, in turn, creates spousal violence.