Verbal Abuse and Bystander Intervention

Verbal abuse can be seen in many settings in private and in public, it can be done by a parent, partner or even a friend. The purpose of this study is to examine how much awareness there is about verbal abuse and aims to see if people are willing to get involved. The sample of participants are Kean University students chosen by sharing the survey link online. Participants read 2 scenarios and then answered a survey to determine how aware they were about the verbal abuse. It also asked how involved someone would be when it comes to verbal abuse. In scenario 1 there is a couple in the mall having a conversation and words are exchanged, in scenario 2 a mom is watching her son at a school game and expresses some words during his game. The participant serves as a witness in each of these scenarios and responds to survey questions based on that viewpoint. The goal of the research is to help bring awareness of verbal abuse to the public.