 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Shelly Campo, PhD, Community and Behavioral Health, University of Iowa, 200 Hawkins Drive, E237 GH, Iowa City, IA 52244, 319-384-5393, shelly-campo@uiowa.edu, Gretchen Poulos, Cornell University, 308 Wait Avenue, Ithaca, NY 14850, and John Sipple, PhD, Department of Education, Cornell University, 421 Kennedy Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853.
College campuses around the country struggle with the issue of hazing and its related injuries. Although recent studies have examined the issue of hazing, these studies have been limited to high school students, intercollegiate athletes, or fraternity and sorority members. This participatory formative research examined the perceptions of risk, susceptibility and actual hazing experiences of a range of college students in order to develop communication campaigns to combat hazing. The current study is based on a stratified random sample by class year of 2000 university students at a mid-sized northeastern university with a total response of 736. Respondents were representative of the university population in regards to sex, ethnicity, age, class year and Greek membership. Results suggest that while nearly a third of students have been hazed, only a fraction identify their experiences as hazing. Willingness to stop a hazing related experience as an initiate or as a member is affected by: perceptions of harm and susceptibility; beliefs that hazing is fun, promotes group cohesion, and positively impacts membership standards by weeding out the weak; and the extent to which one views hazing as a public health issue. Although alcohol use had no direct effect on willingness to stop hazing, it did have a strong indirect effect. Indirect effects were also present for friends’ perceptions of hazing, fraternity and sorority affiliation, and the likelihood of experiencing negative consequences as a result of speaking out against hazing. Implications for health campaigns and preliminary intervention ideas will be shared.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Violence Prevention, Risk Communication
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: I was an employee of the university being discussed and am an alum of that university.