This document discusses understanding marital conflicts in Egyptian culture. It provides statistics showing that divorce rates in Egypt have increased significantly in recent decades. Marital conflicts arise from problems with communication, feelings of neglect, disrespect, anger, and loneliness. Successful marriages are characterized by affection, positive communication, mutual childcare responsibilities, and effective conflict resolution. Distressed marriages involve more punishment and criticism rather than positive exchanges. Understanding cultural factors is important for addressing marital conflicts in Egypt, such as changing social norms around responsibility in marriage and differing responses to problems compared to the past.

2. Understanding Marital Conflicts in
Egyptian Culture
Prof. Hani Hamed Dessoki, M.D.Psychiatry
Prof. Psychiatry
Chairman of Psychiatry Department
Beni Suef University
Supervisor of Psychiatry Department
El-Fayoum University
APA member

3. Agenda
• Introduction
• Normal Family Development
• Characteristics of “happy” couples
• Domestic Violence in a Sample of
Egyptian Female Psychiatric
Patients (Pilot Study)
• Understanding Marital Conflicts in
Egyptian Culture

4. •‫لقب‬ ‫إلى‬ ‫بمصر‬ ‫وصلت‬ ‫الطالق‬ ‫معدالت‬‫األولى‬ ‫الدولة‬‫يخص‬ ‫فيما‬ ‫العالم‬ ‫على‬
‫القرار‬ ‫واتخاذ‬ ‫دعم‬ ‫معلومات‬ ‫مركز‬ ‫عن‬ ‫صادرة‬ ‫دراسة‬ ‫بحسب‬ ،‫الطالق‬ ‫معدالت‬
‫معدال‬ ‫ارتفاع‬ ‫الدراسة‬ ‫أوضحت‬ ‫كما‬ ،‫العام‬ ‫هذا‬ ‫بداية‬ ‫فى‬ ‫الوزراء‬ ‫لمجلس‬ ‫التابع‬‫ت‬
‫من‬ ‫الماضية‬ ً‫ا‬‫عام‬ ‫الخمسين‬ ‫خالل‬ ‫الطالق‬7%‫إلى‬40%‫المطلقات‬ ‫عدد‬ ‫ووصل‬ ،
‫إلى‬ ً‫ا‬‫تقريب‬ ‫مصر‬ ‫فى‬2.5‫صادمة‬ ‫جاءت‬ ‫التى‬ ‫اإلحصائية‬ ‫وهى‬ ،‫مطلقة‬ ‫مليون‬
ً‫ا‬‫قديم‬ ‫مصر‬ ‫عرفتها‬ ‫التى‬ ‫المستقرة‬ ‫واألسرة‬ ‫الزوجية‬ ‫الحياة‬ ‫هيكل‬ ‫لتحطم‬‫واختفت‬ ،
‫االجتماعية‬ ‫المشكالت‬ ‫من‬ ‫كبيرة‬ ‫مجموعة‬ ‫ظل‬ ‫فى‬ ‫اليوم‬.
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5. Marriage and Partnership
• Marriage is a legal, lasting union that is created in a
public ritual

6. Normal Family Development
• Satisfying relationships: balance between giving and
getting. There is “a high ratio of benefits relative to
costs”.
• Critical influences on relationship satisfaction:
• affection
• communication
• child care
• Conflict resolution seems to be one of the most critical
skills associated with family harmony.

7. Understanding Marital Conflicts
• Marital conflicts combine problems of communication,
alienation or some threat to the relationships security
which lead to high anxiety and erosion of the marital
system.
• Feelings of neglect, disrespect, unloved, anger,
loneliness, abandonment and growing feelings of
inadequacy all contribute to the breakdown in the
marriage.

8. • Cause of Marital Discord:
• Receiving too little reinforcement from the marriage.
• Two few needs given marital reinforcement.
• Marital reinforcement no longer provides satisfaction.
• New behaviors are not reinforced.
• One spouse gives more reinforcement than he or she receives.
• Marriage interferes with extramarital sources of satisfaction.
• Communication about potential sources of satisfaction is not
adequate.
• Aversive control (nagging, crying, withdrawing, or threatening)
predominates over positive reinforcement.

9. Development of Behavior Disorders (cont.)
• Distressed marriages include fewer rewarding exchanges
and more punishing exchanges.
• “Spouses typically reciprocate their partners’ use of
punishment, and a vicious cycle develops”.
• Parents who respond aversively to children are likely to
have aversive responses reciprocated.

10. UNDERSTANDING THE FAMILY
• Most important function is socialization
• Process by which children acquire the beliefs, motives, values,
and behaviors considered appropriate in their society

11. UNDERSTANDING THE FAMILY
• The Family as a Social System
• Parents influence children
• Children influence behavior of their parents
• Families are networks of reciprocal relationships
• Happily married mothers are more likely to have securely
attached children
• Children do best when couples coparent

12. Characteristics of “happy” couples
• Characteristics:
• foundation of affection and friendship
• "validation sequences“
• ability to resolve disagreements
• “positive sentiment override”
• a 5 to 1(or better) compliment -criticism ratio is
optimal
• as the ratio decreases, marriage satisfaction
decreases
• Amount of conflict relatively unimportant (all
relationships have conflict)

13. Distressed couples
• Engage in a wide range of destructive fighting techniques
• Personal attacks (name calling)
• Dredging up the past
• Losing focus (…and the “kitchen sink”)
• Negative behaviors
• Criticism (more common in women)
• Defensiveness
• Withdrawal (more common in men)
• Contempt

14. The Workaholic as Parent
• Often preoccupied with their own thoughts, “mentally absent”
• Always “rushing around”, irritable, cranky, lacking humor
• Focused on “adult pursuits”: colleagues, intellect, ‘trying to earn a
living’
• Involvement with the family is on their own terms
• Child tries to become like the parent in order to win their love and
approval
• Child measures his worth based on what he does, not by who he
is…can never meet parent’s expectations

15. The Workaholic…in Love
• WA usually demand a great deal of their marital partner
(understanding, patience, deferral of needs, “adjusting”)
• WA tend to avoid confrontation & engage in “silent
treatment”
• WA may engage in extramarital affairs, particularly with
an office-mate
• WA may develop alcoholism or substance abuse out of
unresolved emotional issues & as a coping mechanism to
relax, discharge emotional tension

16. Issues that lower the divorce rate:
• First marriage
• Higher education (college and above)
• Married in 20s or 30s (not teens)
• Not lived with many partners prior to marriage
• Religious convictions

17. Domestic Violence in a Sample of Egyptian Female Psychiatric Patients
(Pilot Study)
Mahmoud El Batrawy*, Mostafa Shaheen*, Noha Sabry*, Hani Hamed**
* Prof. of Psychiatry Faculty of Medicine. Cairo University
** Associate Prof.of Psychiatry. Faculty of Medicine. Beni-Suef University
Abstract
Domestic violence is one of the most pervasive of all social problems, Domestic violence
for
women is violence perpetrated within relationships; this violence is much serious than
violence
perpetrated by a stranger.
The hypothesis of this work is that domestic violence is a general
health problem and not present particularly in psychiatric patients, the study aims at
studying
domestic violence in married female psychiatric patients.
Method: Sixty Egyptian married
females were included, 20 of them had the I.C.D.-10 diagnosis of bipolar affective
disorder, 20
with neurotic disorder and 20 control group. All groups were clinically and
psychometrically
assessed using clinical psychiatric sheet of Kasr El-Aini hospital. All participants were
subjected
to: Zung Self Rating Depression Scale, Locus of Control Scale, Esyenck Personality
Questionnaire (E.P.Q) and a specially designed questionnaire to assess intimacy, and
marital abuse or violence.
Conclusion: Domestic violence occurring in female psychiatric patients is not
higher than normal. In addition, despite abuse, Egyptian wives tend to see their
husbands positively.
EuropeanPsychiatry Volume 26, n° S1
page 1657 (2011 )

18. Social Symptoms of Marital Conflict
• Decrease in social activities by one or both. Withdrawal
from time spent with the family, opting for time in front of
the television, or on the internet.
• Problems with employment such as a job transfer,
increased job responsibilities, tendency to set poor limits
for work schedule, frequent job losses, and
unemployment
• Onset of chronic disability in the family
• Extra-marital affairs
• Financial problems
• Forms of abuse, such as domestic violence or
addictions.
• Disturbed child relationships

19. Understanding Marital Conflicts in Egyptian
Culture

20. ‫حاال‬‫ت‬‫مصر‬ ‫فى‬ ‫الطالق‬
•‫دراسة‬‫أخرى‬‫توضح‬‫ما‬‫وصلت‬‫إليه‬‫حالة‬‫الطالق‬‫فى‬،‫مصر‬‫هى‬‫الدراسة‬‫األخير‬‫ة‬
‫التى‬‫صدرت‬‫عن‬‫مركز‬‫التعبئة‬‫العامة‬‫واإلحصاء‬‫أن‬‫مصر‬‫شهدت‬‫أكثر‬‫من‬75
‫ألف‬‫حالة‬‫طالق‬‫فى‬‫العام‬‫الماضى‬‫فقط‬.
•‫زيادة‬‫معدالت‬‫الطالق‬‫كظاهرة‬‫ال‬‫ترجع‬‫فى‬‫األساس‬‫إلى‬‫مرض‬‫نفسى‬‫أو‬‫تغيرا‬‫ت‬
‫نفسية‬‫بقدر‬‫ما‬‫ترجع‬‫إلى‬‫تغيرات‬،‫اجتماعية‬‫واختالف‬‫فى‬‫تركيب‬‫المجت‬‫مع‬
‫وطريقة‬‫تعامل‬‫األزواج‬‫مع‬‫المشاكل‬‫واختالف‬‫ردود‬‫األفعال‬‫عن‬،‫الماضى‬‫وأكبر‬
‫هذه‬‫التغيرات‬‫وتأثيرها‬‫هو‬‫عدم‬‫تحمل‬‫المسئولية‬‫من‬‫الطرفين‬‫واعتبار‬‫الزوا‬‫ج‬
‫فسحة‬‫أو‬‫لعبة‬‫تنتهى‬‫بتصاعد‬‫الخالفات‬‫أو‬،‫الملل‬‫على‬‫عكس‬‫الماضى‬.
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21. Understanding Marital Conflicts in Egyptian
Culture
• Many conflicts center on financial issues, parenting
styles, sexual intimacy difficulties, and even differences in
lifestyles.
• A couple with marital conflicts may be contemplating
divorce, even though they may never have verbalized it.