Table 2 Constructing the theme clusters of psychological factors

“I’ve been married to him for 15 years! I can’t leave him now. I’ve sacrificed my youth for this marriage!” (P2)

“My husband has a lot of debt! He borrowed a lot of money from my sister’s husband without personal guarantee. If I leave him, I have to pay off his debts” (P4)

“I really felt stuck and had no choice but to stay and endure” (P9)

Psychological entrapment

Psychological factors

“Since I didn’t feel love from my parents, I was prone to depression. In my current life, I endured a lot of humiliation, blames, and abuse from my husband. I have been suffering from depression for several years” (P3)

“Depression is one of the problems that I’ve been dealing with since I was a teenager. After marriage, it became much more severe. Some days, I stay in bed until night” (P5)

Depression

“My father has passed away; my brothers are thirsty for my blood [hate me], and my mother doesn’t care what happens to me. I don’t have anyone except my husband! It is the fear of loneliness that prevents me from leaving him” (P3)

“My mom has passed away and my relationship with my dad is not good at all. I can’t stay in my dad’s house. The only person I have is my husband. That’s why sometimes the worry that he will leave me and become alone scares me very much” (P5)

“I didn’t feel love from my parents! I am very afraid of being alone, of not having anyone to support me. Being with my husband is better than being alone” (P6).

Fear of loneliness

“I hate him and need him at the same time. Two faces of him are in my mind, the kind face that I love and remind me of our past friendship, and the angry face that I see many times and scares me” (P3)

“When he is calm, it gives me hope to continue my life, but when his violence occurs again, I want to end it [marriage]. In fact, sometimes I hated him and sometimes I loved him” (P5)

Conflicting feelings

“I couldn’t sleep when he was at home, I was always alert and stressed. It took so much energy from me such that I always felt extreme fatigue, and had difficulty getting to sleep” (P8)

“I was scared, very scared. I was scared of the re-occurrence of his violent behavior. I had nightmares! My heart rate was so high!” (P11)

PTSD

“He compares me with his female coworkers or with actresses, which makes me really hate myself, my body, and my appearance. He once told me: When we go out together, people think you are my mother! He complains about everything, including my cooking and housekeeping! I had a feeling that I was not a good wife for him” (P2)

“He treats me intimately only when he wants sex, and this has made me deeply think that I am not an attractive woman! When he cheats on me, I think that I do not deserve respect and love” (P4)

“He gets irritated over my small mistakes and reports them to the family. I felt like a useless person who could not handle anything.” (P10)

Low self-esteem

“I worked hard for this life, but still nothing good happened. I can’t do anything anymore. No matter what I do, the situation is the same, and it won’t change” (P1)

“I did everything, nothing special happened, I advised him, I begged him, I listened to him, I behaved as he wanted, but nothing changed” (P2)

Learned helplessness

“When he realized that I wanted to leave him and go back to my father’s house, he threatened that he would make me and my family regret it.” (P2)

“He said that if I leave him, it will be very bad for me, and he even threatened me with acid attack and murder” (P5)

“He once said that he had bought some acid and hid it somewhere; if I leave him, he will find me and pour a bucket of acid on my head” (P7)

Fear of life-threatening danger