By Staff
Coaching Management, 9.1, February 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0901/bbhazing.htm
In 1999, Alfred University released the results of a ground-breaking survey of hazing in college athletics. Many people were surprised when the Alfred study reported that 79 percent of college athletes surveyed reported that they had been hazed as they joined their athletic teams.
In 2000, Alfred researchers studied the extent of hazing at the high school level. And although the numbers may not be surprising after the college study, they still give pause: Forty-eight percent of students reported being hazed when joining some sort of student organization, including 35 percent of those who joined athletic teams.
Among those who reported being hazed, 67 percent were members of sports teams, followed by members of art and theatre groups (39 percent), scholastic clubs (30 percent), church groups (29 percent), social clubs (25 percent), peer groups or gangs (22 percent) and cheerleading squads (15 percent). The study defined hazing for the students as “any humiliating or dangerous activity expected of you to join a group, regardless of your willingness to participate.”
As part of their initiation processes:
• Forty-three percent of those reporting being hazed also reported being subjected to humiliating activities, such as being yelled or cursed at; told to skip school or not associate with others; forced to eat disgusting things; or tattooed, shaved, or pierced.
• Twenty-three percent reported being involved in substance abuse, such as drinking alcohol, smoking, or using drugs; participating in drinking games; or exercising or drinking until passing out.
• Twenty-nine percent reported performing illegal acts, including destroying or vandalizing property, being forced to steal or cheat, or being forced to beat up or inflict pain on others or be beaten themselves.
“We anticipated that we would find some level of hazing,” said Nadine Hoover, the survey’s principal investigator. “What we found distressing was the prevalence.”
The high school survey also asked student-athletes what they thought would help prevent hazing. The number-one response was strong discipline for hazing (61 percent), followed by police investigation and prosecution (50 percent), positive bonding activities (43 percent), education about positive initiation activities (37 percent), and adults supporting such positive activities (34 percent).
The study’s authors provide three concrete suggestions for stopping hazing: “To prevent hazing, we need to send a clear anti-hazing message; to keep kids safe, we need to reinvent community and cultivate community elders; and to keep the community safe, we need to pay attention to teens who are excluded,” the study says.
The study further suggests that coaches can work to circumvent the need for hazing by creating meaningful bonding rites for their teams. These activities may include having players take an oath as they join the team, dressing up for team functions, completing a ropes course, or doing volunteer community work as a group. These activities work to include the new member by the performance of some task that contributes to the team’s togetherness, while not causing emotional or physical distress.
Coaches can also urge schools to implement anti-hazing policies, which accomplishes two objectives. First, it can get the members of that coach’s school community talking about the problem of hazing. Second, a policy will define acceptable and unacceptable initiations and establish ground rules that will help teammates to understand when their behavior may be crossing the line.
For further information on hazing:
• www.alfred.edu/news/html/hazing_study.html. This site contains the full text of the hazing study commissioned by Alfred University.
• www.stophazing.org. This site supports anti-hazing efforts nationwide. It also contains links to other anti-hazing sites.
• http://sites.netscape.net/hanknuwer. This site is maintained by Hank Nuwer, who has written two books on hazing: High School Hazing: When Rites Become Wrongs (Franklin Watts Publishing: 2000); and Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing and Binge Drinking (Indiana University Press: 1999).
• http://espn.go.com/otl/hazing/list.html. Published in the wake of the Alfred University study, this information details reported hazing incidents from the 1990s, allowing coaches a glimpse of the severity of these practices.
• www.athleticsearch.com. Coaching Management’s sister magazine, Athletic Management, has published several articles on hazing and how to implement prevention strategies. Articles can be found by entering “hazing” as the keyword in the search window.