Older People's Understandings of Verbal Abuse

A social constructionist, discourse analytic approach was used to analyze interviews with eight older people about the meaning of the term abuse and their experiences with abuse. Our major findings were: (1) participants' definitions of abuse are complex and differ in some important ways from those found in the literature; (2) abuse almost invariably involves verbal abuse; (3) language is often judged to be abusive because of the actions it accomplishes rather than because of its literal or referential meanings; and (4) to be abusive, speech must meet four criteria: an accountable speaker, unwarranted assumptions about relationships, unwarranted violation of rights, and a recipient who is harmed. Results are discussed in light of current trends in elder abuse research.