How can bystander intervention change? An online qualitative study in Italt and Brazil

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive social issue affecting millions of women each year. The majority of IPV studies have focused on individual reasons for the abuse and attributes of the victim. A relatively untapped area of research is bystander intervention. Understanding how and why individuals assist victims is critical to reducing the prevalence of IPV because informal social support network members play a critical role in buffering the negative effects of violent relationship. As bystander approaches become increasingly prevalent elements of IPV prevention efforts in the college campus, it is necessary to better understand the factors that support or impede individuals in taking positive action in the face of aggressive behavior. The purpose of this study is therefore to explore how college students from two different universities (University of Florence – Italy and University of Sao Paulo – Brazil) experience and decode bystander opportunities as well as the factors they consider as they weigh the choice to intervene, underling possible cultural and gender differences. In Italy and in Brazil students participated to two online group chats (one hour each one). We used a virtual chat because the Web is configured as an ecological setting to communicate, and this is evident in the young generation grown with the new technologies. In the group discussion via chat will be presented two hypothetical situations of violence, one “less severe” and the other “more invasive”. Transcripts were analyzed using Grounded Theory techniques. Italian and Brazilian students report a complex and interrelated set of individual and contextual influences on their choices within bystander opportunities, which hold implications for both violence-specific models of bystander behavior and for prevention intervention development. Moreover, it appears clearly a gender differences for both cultures: Italian and Brazilian males choose more risky types of intervention than Italian and Brazilian females do. In conclusion our results suggest that prevention strategies that increase community members’ sense of responsibility for ending violence, should build confidence in helping, and develop support norms that encourage active bystanders in order to increase helping behavior.