Hazing Study

Hazing in View: College Students at Risk
Initial Findings from the National Study of Student Hazing

March 11, 2008

Presented by
Elizabeth J. Allan, Ph.D., Associate Professor
&
Mary Madden, Ph.D., Associate Professor

University of Maine

College of Education and Human Development

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• Executive Summary

• Introduction

• Overview

• National Study Goals & Methods

• Findings

• Implications and Recommendations

• Summary

• Works Cited/Notes/Acknowledgements

• Appendices

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Executive Summary

Documented problems related to student hazing include physical and psychological harm and even death.  Hazing in View: College Students at Risk provides the initial Findings of the National Study of Student Hazing.  The research is based on the analysis of 11,482 survey responses from undergraduate students enrolled at 53 colleges and universities and more than 300 interviews with students and campus personnel at 18 of those institutions.

For this study, hazing was defined as "any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of a person's willingness to participate."   The following Findings are discussed in the report:

• 55% of college students involved in clubs, teams, and organizations experience hazing. 
• Hazing occurs in, but extends beyond, varsity athletics and Greek-letter organizations and includes behaviors that are abusive, dangerous, and potentially illegal.
• Alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep- deprivation, and sex acts are hazing practices common across types of student groups.
• There are public aspects to student hazing including: 25% of coaches or organization advisors were aware of the group's hazing behaviors; 25% of the behaviors occurred on-campus in a public space; in 25% of hazing experiences, alumni were present; and students talk with peers (48%, 41%) or family (26%) about their hazing experiences.
• In more than half of the hazing incidents, a member of the offending group posts pictures on a public web space.
• More students perceive positive rather than negative outcomes of hazing.
• In 95% of the cases where students identified their experience as hazing, they did not report the events to campus officials.
• Students recognize hazing as part of the campus culture; 69% of students who belonged to a student activity reported they were aware of hazing activities occurring in student organizations other than their own.
• Students report limited exposure to hazing prevention efforts that extend beyond a "hazing is not tolerated" approach.
• 47% of students come to college having experienced hazing.
• Nine out of ten students who have experienced hazing behavior in college do not consider themselves to have been hazed.

Researchers provide general recommendations for campus personnel, college and university administrators, and those working with college students including:

• Design hazing prevention efforts to be broad and inclusive of all students involved in campus organizations and athletic teams. 
• Make a serious commitment to educate the campus community about the dangers of hazing; send a clear message that hazing will not be tolerated and that those engaging in hazing behaviors will be held accountable. 
• Broaden the range of groups targeted for hazing prevention education to include all students, campus staff, administrators, faculty, alumni, and family members.  
• Design intervention and prevention efforts that are research-based and systematically evaluate them to assess their effectiveness.
• Involve all students in hazing prevention efforts and introduce these early in students' campus experience (i.e., orientation). 
• Design prevention efforts to be more comprehensive than simply one-time presentations or distribution of anti-hazing policies.

This is the first in a series of reports to be released from the data collected in this investigation.  Subsequent reports will examine other aspects of the data in more depth including: recommendations for hazing prevention, gender differences in hazing, high school hazing experiences, hazing within particular types of student groups, and regional and institutional-type comparisons of student hazing.

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