HAZING PERCEPTIONS FROM COLLEGE STUDENTS – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Findings from the Hazing Prevention: It's Everyone's Responsibility™ Program

Hazing remains a serious problem in many student groups and organizations. As a result, hazing prevention has become a critical focus for student affairs professionals, coaches and athletic professionals, and other staff on college campuses. Professionals need timely data to focus their work and inform hazing prevention efforts on campus.

This resource explores data from more than 220,000 students who completed the Hazing Prevention 101™ – College Edition course. The results share students’ perceptions of hazing on campus, including the most common types of hazing behaviors. Additionally, this resource shares insight into students’ attitudes about hazing and how empowered they feel to prevent hazing or report hazing when it occurs. Use these findings to develop new hazing prevention initiatives or update existing programs.

BACKGROUND

This report summarizes findings from the Hazing Prevention 101™ – College Edition pre- and post-course surveys administered from 2020 through 2022.

SURVEY METHOD

The purpose of the survey is to collect data regarding attitudes and opinions regarding hazing. A total of 220,416 individuals at 82 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada completed the surveys.

INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

PARTICIPANT CHARACTERISTICS

GENDER

Female (57%)
Male (41%)
Other (1%)
Prefer not to answer (1%)

RACE/ETHNICITY

White/Caucasian (68%)
Asian (9%)
Hispanic/Latino (9%)
Black/African American (8%)
American Indian/Native American (1%)
Pacific Islander (<1%)
Other (3%)
Prefer not to answer (3%)

ORGANIZATIONAL INVOLVEMENT

HAZING PREVALENCE: AFTER COURSE COMPLETION

More than half (52%) of participants stated that they were not aware of hazing occurring on their campus.
27% of participants indicated they were not sure how often hazing occurs on their campus because they were still new to campus.
21% were aware of hazing on their campus.

TYPES OF HAZING

32,185 respondents said they were aware of one or more of the four types of hazing mentioned in the survey:

Of those respondents who were aware of at least one of the four types of hazing behaviors noted above on their campus:

42% were aware of one type of hazing behavior.
25% were aware of two behaviors.

17% were aware of three behaviors.
16% were aware of all four behaviors.

COURSE IMPACTS

After completing the course, only 3% of participants held onto their belief that hazing is an important part of the initiation process, and only 2% believed hazing is harmless pranking.

Participants also “strongly agree” or “agreed” that as a direct result of taking the course, they:

Will be more likely to report hazing if they see it (90%)
Feel more empowered to prevent hazing (88%)
Feel less inclined to take part in hazing (85%)

84% of course participants indicated that if they knew an organization hazes, they would NOT join that organization.

Course Impacts, continued

In the pre-course survey, 88% of participants said they would report hazing if they witnessed it, but only 47% knew how to report it. In the post-course survey, 89% of participants indicated that they would report hazing if they witnessed it and knew how to do so.

After taking the course, students' knowledge of how to report hazing increased from 47% before to 89% after.

Hazing Prevention: It's Everyone's Responsibility™

is the most comprehensive hazing prevention curriculum

available and is the #1 choice of students.

ABOUT PREVENT.ZONE BY ALIVETEK & HAZING PREVENTION NETWORK

AliveTek is dedicated to building and supporting online education to engage today’s multidimensional learners. Prevent.Zone is a suite of courses by AliveTek, Inc., designed to educate students on current prevention topics and social issues, including hazing prevention, alcohol, sexual violence, campus fire safety, and diversity, equity & inclusion.

Hazing Prevention Network™ is a national nonprofit organization representing a network of people, organizations, and resources dedicated to empowering people to prevent hazing by providing education and resources, advocating on hazing prevention, and building partnerships with others. Through its initiatives, Hazing Prevention Network touches the lives of thousands of individuals, organizations, campuses, and communities.

Special appreciation for collaboration in creating this report goes to the Piazza Center.