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This study investigated psychological distress as measured by the Impact of Events Scale-Revised and physiological reactivity as measured by skin conductance and heart rate in bystanders as compared to direct victims of prevalent forms of repetitive abuse (e.g., bullying). Participants (N = 77) were interviewed twice: once to recall witnessing another person be abused repeatedly over time, and again to recall similar experiences as a victim. Present levels for bystander and victim distress were not significantly different, but distress levels were significantly greater for victim experiences at the time the repetitive abuse occurred. Scores for both groups were comparable to or exceeded scores associated with natural disasters and other life threatening experiences reported in the literature. Findings suggest repetitive abuse may affect bystanders and victims in similarly serious ways at the time the events occur and later in life.
Keywords: bystanders; abuse; repetitive abuse; trauma
Psychological distress and physiological reactivity can arise in previously psychologically healthy people as a result of a wide range of traumatic stressors (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000; McFarlane & de Girolamo, 1996) including experiences often considered as commonplace or ordinary (Norris, 1992; Solomon & Canino, 1990). Since the 1950s, some researchers have suggested that the close connection between stressful everyday experience and psychological distress and disorder has been consistently underestimated in the literature on life events and may be far more prevalent than previously thought (Carlson, 1997; McFarlane & de Girolamo, 1996).
Recent editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (APA, 2000) have recognized the importance of more ordinary traumatic events by eliminating previous wording from earlier editions (APA, 1980) that limited the diagnosis of stress disorders to experiences that were "generally outside the range of usual human experience" (p. 236). The most recent edition (APA, 2000) has broadened the criteria to include both children and adults who witness or experience the threat of death or serious injury to self or others with a reaction that "involve[s] intense fear, helplessness, or horror" (p. 428). This shift in clinical focus extends beyond the nature of the stressor to encompass the subjective nature of the individual's response, acknowledging that to a great extent, trauma is in the eye of the beholder (Shopper, 1995).
Some researchers have argued that...