Development of the Bystander Attitude and Behavior Scales with University Faculty

Background and purpose. Universities continue to develop and implement bystander interventions for addressing campus violence and have recently sought to engage faculty and staff in these initiatives. However, it has become evident that to effectively evaluate the outcomes of these faculty-focused programs, it will be critical to develop and validate instruments that can reliably assess bystander attitude and behavior among university faculty. Since there is a clear connection between changing attitudes and behaviors associated with gender-based violence and other oppressive behaviors, it is important to consider expanding the constructs measured by these scales to include both attitudes and behaviors related to all

forms of oppressive behaviors including sexual violence, sexism, racism, and heterosexism. The purpose of this study was threefold: 1) adapt two existing bystander attitude and behavior measures for a university faculty population; 2) expand on the inclusion of oppressive attitudes and behaviors; and 3) explore the factor structure of the modified self-reported scales. Methods. We modified and validated the previously developed Bystander Attitude and Bystander Behavior scales for a faculty population and worked to establish their reliability and content validity. An online survey was administered to a convenience sample of 167 university

faculty. A principal-axis factor analysis, using direct oblimin rotation, was conducted separately on the twenty-seven attitude items and the twenty-seven behavior items. However, two attitude items were discarded after extraction due to low communalities (<.20) or low factor loadings on the pattern matrix (<.30). A subsequent analysis was conducted on the remaining attitude items.

None of the behavior items were discarded. Results. Two scales, the Faculty Bystander attitude Scale (FBAS) and the Faculty Bystander Behavior Scale (FBBS), were developed to assess faculty bystander attitude and behaviors regarding gender-based violence and other oppressive behaviors. For the attitude items, three factors were extracted, explaining 73% of the total variance. Factor 1 contains 12 items measuring the expression of concern over inappropriate statements made by students. Factor 2 contains 9 items measuring the expression of concern over inappropriate statements made by another faculty member. Finally, Factor 3 contains 4 items measuring the desire to participate in activities that help end sexual violence. For the behavior items, three factors were extracted, explaining 76% of the total variance. Factor 1 contains 17 items measuring concern regarding the victims of sexual assault and inappropriate comments. Factor 2 contains 4 items measuring participation in activities that help end sexual violence. Finally, Factor 3 contains 6 items measuring the expression of concern over inappropriate statements made by either another faculty member or a student. Conclusions and implications. Faculty specific bystander attitude and behavior scales are necessary to assess the efficacy of prevention programming for faculty. In addition, these scales can also be incorporated into campus climate surveys to determine faculty’s willingness to intervene when they witness behaviors along the continuum of violence.