In 2003 Women's Advice Center "Sakhli" undertook a research on "Gender Aspects of the Family Conflicts". The objective of the research was to identify the reasons for the violent behavior by gender parameters as well as to reveal the links between family violence and the social and economic situation, family functions of the parties, the conflict resolution styles in families and the self-esteem of the parties involved in the conflict. The research sample consisted  of  400  randomly selected respondents, including 43.3% female and 56.8% male respondents.

General conclusions:

• Economic difficulties (unemployment) were identified as the main cause of family problems, conflicts in the family and family violence. These factors were found to impede the implementation of their functions by family members (especially for men) and to form a foundation for tensed family relations.
• The  assignment of gender roles in the family, as revealed by the survey, provides for financial support of the family to be the principal responsibility for men, while upbringing of children – the principal responsibility for women. However, though the financial support is not generally regarded as the primary family function of women, the majority of respondents named it to be the acute problem for women. It should be mentioned that women’s work is generally less valued than men’s one;
• Great contradictions were observed when identifying the main violator in the family. Women considered men, and men considered women, to be responsible for the major part of the family conflicts. In the manifestation of the conflict behavior men are more active (scolding, abusing, ignoring), while women are  more passive (patient, complaining);
• The comparative analysis of the data of male and female groups showed that each group is very critical of the opposite sex group. The tendency of aggressive interpretation  of  the  opposite  sex's  behavior and  blaming each other for unfulfilled responsibilities are commonplace. At the same time the ability to recognize one’s own responsibility for the conflict was named as one of the most successful means for reducing the tension by both male and female respondents;
• Though the self-esteem evaluation by the respondents was generally positive, these outcomes cannot be considered as absolutely reliable, because the self-confidence estimations of the respondents were not high. It should be noted that men are more confident than women.

The revealed tendencies once again demonstrate the practicability of further study of the family violence issue to identify the mechanisms of overcoming conflicts and violence in the family

(Georgian version)