Objective  To track and compare the status of spousal violence among employees of a large enterprise in Hunan province during a 10-year period.

  Methods  Using stratified multistage random sampling among employees of a large state-owned enterprise in Xiangtan city of Hunan province, we conducted two waves of self-administered questionnaire survey among 95 persons in 100 households (2002 group) and 133 persons in 100 households (2012 group) identified with spousal violence with a same domestic violence questionnaire during two periods of 2001 – 2002 and 2011 – 2012.

  Results  Among the participants of 2002 and 2012 group, the proportions of male violence perpetrators were 85.7% and 69.2% and the proportions of female victims were 87.0% and 69.1%, respectively, and there were significant gender differences in the two proportions between the two groups (χ² = 50.125, χ² = 19.550; both P < 0.001). The leading precipitating factor for the spousal violence incidences was the issue about their children′s education, which was reported by 41.1% and 51.9% of the participants for the 2002 and 2012 group. The most common form of spousal violence was verbal abuse, which was reported by 90.5% and 93.2% of the participants in 2002 and 2012 group, without significant difference (χ² = 0.558, P > 0.05). Significantly higher ratio of spousal violence-induced mental disorder (35.3%) and body injury (15.0%) were reported by the victims in 2012 group than those (16.8% and 4.2%) in 2002 group (χ² = 9.481, χ² = 6.897; both P < 0.01). The proportions of perpetrator-recognized spousal violence were 69.4% and 50.8% and those of victim-recognized were 54.3% and 35.3% in 2002 and 2012 group, without significant differences (χ² = 0.046, χ² = 0.044; both P > 0.01).

  Conclusion  Main perpetrators in spousal violence were males and psychological violence was the most common form of spousal violence. Child education issue was the leading precipitating factor of spousal violence. The victims of spousal violence in 2012 suffered from more mental disorder and physical injury than those in 2002 and attitude towards spousal violence did not change significantly during the 10 year period among both the perpetrators and victims.