More than 32 million Americans have been affected by intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Since few studies have examined IPV qualitatively, the present study addresses this gap in the literature by focusing on how people respond to common scenarios of physical and verbal abuse.
One hundred twenty-nine participants (94 females, 35 males; mean age = 32 years) completed an online survey assessing open ended responses to eight scenarios of physical abuse (e.g., A woman’s boyfriend hits her for the first time. He says, “I’ll never do it again”) and verbal abuse (e.g., A woman verbally abuses her husband. She criticizes him, telling him that he is pathetic and not a real man). Data were analyzed with selective coding using grounded theory. Sixteen core categories emerged from the data. Two research assistants individually coded each scenario responses; inter-rater reliability was high (alpha=0.90). For the physically abusive scenarios, the most common responses were to end the relationship, seek support from family and friends, and get counseling. For the verbally abusive scenarios the most frequent responses were to seek help from family and friends, call 911, end relationship, and get couples/marriage counseling. Overall findings indicated that as bystanders, people would tell the victim to leave their partner, seek help from their support network, and get counseling. However, it is important to assess whether they would behave similarly if in fact they were the victim in these situations of physical and verbal abuse. Suggestions for intervention strategies and future research are discussed.
