Who, When, How, and Why Bystanders Intervene in Physical and Psychological Teen Dating Violence

Abstract

Teen dating violence victimization is associated with a host of adverse mental and physical health problems. A number of bystander-focused interventions have been developed to mitigate the occurrence of abuse but with varying effectiveness. There remains a need to understand more about bystander behaviors used by adolescents to ensure that existing intervention components match with bystanders’ attitudes and behaviors about intervening. The current study is a scoping review of existing literature on adolescents’ use of bystander behaviors to determine who, when, how, and why adolescents intervene. Seventeen articles met inclusion criteria, the majority of which used qualitative or observational survey designs. Adolescents who either feel a sense of responsibility and confidence to intervene or are directly involved with or know the individuals involved in the dating violence are more likely to intervene. Adolescents intervene when they are able to define an act as dating violence and tend to intervene when the victim is female and when they have a supportive relationship with at least one teacher in their school. The various ways how bystander intervention is engaged in ranges from verbally or physically confronting the abuser, distracting the abuser, seeking support from an adult, to passively accepting the abuse. Reasons why adolescents intervene include believing the abuse is wrong and that intervening will diffuse the situation and help the victim. A number of barriers to bystander intervention emerged from analysis including individual attitudes and school climate factors. Implications for strengthening bystander intervention programs are discussed.

High School Students’ Perceptions of School Personnel’s Intentions to Help Prevent Teen Sexual and Dating Violence: Associations with Attitudes and Intended Behaviors

“…Taken together these findings suggest that perceptions of the school environment, specifically about school personnel, are associated with adolescents’ attitudes and intended behavior. Although we cannot draw causality from our findings, this conclusion is consistent with previous research showing that school climate variables may impact students’ bystander behavior (Debnam & Mauer, 2019). The current study goes beyond other research on peer norms (Beckmann et al, 2019) to an understanding of the important role of school staff for SDV norms.…”

“…Adolescents tend to intervene in situations of SDV when they have a supportive relationship with school staff and can be hindered from helping by school climate variables such as perceptions that schools do not take student dating violence seriously (Debnam & Mauer, 2019). Debnam and Maurer also discuss the importance of adolescents' perceptions of school personnel' intentions to intervene.…”

Effect of the Lights4Violence intervention on the sexism of adolescents in European countries

“…These interventions have targeted both the general young population and youth at risk of suffering from or committing gender violence like children exposed to domestic violence, or witnesses of maternal abuse. Most interventions have been focused on increasing knowledge of violence and traditional gender roles [ 24 ], in addition to providing skills that allow young people to confront frustration and resolve conflicts in a non-violent way [ 22 ], and increasing awareness and skills about appropriate bystander interventions among adolescents [ 25 , 26 ]. Although the evaluations of these interventions are heterogeneous, the results show that it is possible to reduce victimization and perpetration of dating violence [ 23 , 27 , 28 ].…”

“Walking on Eggshells:” A Qualitative Study of How Friends of Young Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence Perceive Their Role

“…Researchers (predominantly in the United States) have examined the ways in which friends respond to IPV and the factors associated with their responses. They have found that when friends witness or notice IPV, they report offering help to the victim or confronting the abuser (Casey et al, 2018; Debnam & Mauer, 2019). For example, Fry et al (2014) surveyed 1,312 U.S. high-school students (of which 22% had a friend in an abusive relationship) and found that 79% had talked to the friend and 80% had told their friend to leave the relationship.…”