The relationship between hazing and team cohesion.
van Raalte, Judy L. ; Cornelius, Allen E. ; Linder, Darwyn E. 等
"Rites de passage," puberty rites, and other forms of
initiation into tribal membership or adult status have existed
throughout human history (Van Gennep, 1977). Although these behaviors
may reflect abuse cycles in which victims become perpetrators (Nuwer,
1990; 2001; Ramzy & Bryant, 1962), it has been suggested that these
practices were functional in the adaptations of human groups to a mostly
hostile physical and social environment (Jones, 2000; Weisfeld, 1979).
Indeed, effortful or painful initiations may have been adaptive in the
training of armies by complex societies, and it would appear to be
another easy generalization to the setting of team sports, as athletic
competition between various groups developed. Whatever the earlier
history of these practices may have been, they are clearly manifest in
modern times (Campo, Poulos, & Sipple, 2005; Finkel, 2002; Hoover,
1999). Known now as "hazing," the practice of subjecting
initiates, whether to a fraternity, a service club, a school, or an
interscholastic, collegiate or professional sports team, to effortful,
painful, or embarrassing rituals has been widespread (Nuwer, 1990,
2001,2006).
Due to a number of social and other factors, hazing in sport is no
longer deemed to be acceptable behavior (Johnson & Hohnan, 2004).
Indeed, 44 states currently have laws on the books designed to curtail hazing with specific penalties for hazing and for failing to report
hazing (www.stophazing.org/laws.html). Enforcement of anti-hazing laws
has increased due to a rash of hazing related negative outcomes
including serious injury and death as well as increased institutional
liability for hazing related claims (MacLachlan, 2000). For example, the
University of Vermont cancelled their team's ice hockey season in
2000 due to a hazing incident. Other sport hazing violations have led to
fines, expulsion, withholding of diplomas, and prison terms (Crow &
Rosner, 2002). Given the strong anti-hazing sentiment, legislation, and
enforcement, the question can be raised, has hazing been eliminated or
does hazing in sport still occur?
The difficulty in asking about illegal behaviors in general and
hazing in particular is that people are cautious reporting their
association with these activities. For example Hoover (1999) found that
only 12% of the 61,258 athletes surveyed reported being hazed. However,
when asked about involvement with specific activities and not hazing per
se, 80% reported being subjected to one or more typical hazing behaviors
as part of their team initiations.
One way of assessing the prevalence of hazing in sport is to look
to the news media. Although it is likely that the media under report
hazing due to secrecy and other issues, the incidents of hazing (if any)
that are reported in the media are often those that are the most highly
visible (Nuwer, 2006).
A LexisNexis search of over 18,000 news-related sources, including
newspapers, journals, wire services, and transcripts of TV broadcasts
was conducted for the keyword "hazing" within sports news
stories for the calendar year ending January 7, 2004. A total of 154
articles were located, 150 of which described hazing in sport. These
articles described 62 separate incidents of hazing from a variety of
sports (see Table 1).
The types of hazing that were reported in these articles varied in
tone from mild, light-hearted stories (e.g., embarrassing professional
athletes by making them wear odd clothes) to reports of severe and
dangerous incidents (e.g., charges being filed for sexual assault). The
following examples provide a sense of the range and severity of hazing
activities.
One article described an investigation of an assault by four soccer
players, aged 13 to 17, on one of their teammates who refused to submit
to hazing at a preseason practice. The player who refused to be hazed
was hospitalized for his injuries (Sandoval, 2002, September 6). Another
soccer-related incident was reported concerning a high school freshman
who was taped to a goalpost and then had soccer balls kicked at him
(Belz, 2003, October 1). Quarterback Patrick Ramsey was also taped to a
goalpost when he reached the professional level with the Washington
Redskins, but had a bucket of ice dumped on his head (Redskins veterans
initiate Ramsey, 2002, August 9). He stated, "You almost consider
it an honor. You've grown up seeing this happen to rookies, and now
it's your turn" (p. 3-D). A high school freshman wrestler
reported he was subjected to beatings by his teammates (Bondy, 2004,
January 5). These "red belly" spankings were reportedly
encouraged by the coach as a way to administer discipline and attitude
adjustment. Another report described how rookies on the Denver Broncos
had maple syrup and flour poured on them while they were sleeping
(Schetter, 2003, July 31). Rookie players also typically carried helmets
and equipment for the veterans. Ori the Colorado Rockies, rookie players
were forced to wear clown shoes, platform shoes, stretch t-shirts that
exposed their midriffs, and adult diapers in an effort to embarrass them, "all in fun" (Renck, 2002, September 27). One of the
worst reports of hazing involved a Methodist College football player who
accused his teammates of beating and sodomizing him (Football player,
2002, December 14). Teammates pinned him to a locker room floor,
stripped him, wrote on his buttocks with a marker, and then sodomized
him with the marker. The hazers were charged with second-degree sexual
offense.
Given the strong legal deterrents to hazing now in place, one may
ask, "why does hazing in sport continue?" A number of answers
to that question have been provided in the popular press, including the
suggestion that hazing is part of team tradition and is actually a team
bonding experience (Hoffer, 1999; Weir, 2003; Wertheim, 2003). Hazing
has further been described as promoting team cohesion, increasing social
attraction to the team and its members, and enhancing the ability of
teams to work together effectively to attain team goals (Campo, Poulos,
& Sipple, 2005; Carron, 1982; Keating et al., 2005; StopHazing.org,
2006; Winslow, 1999). There are really two separate assertions being
made in this argument. The first is that hazing promotes team
cohesiveness, and the second is that team cohesiveness enhances team
performance. There is an ample body of evidence supporting the second
proposition (Carron, et al, 2002; Bray & Whaley, 2001; Kozub &
McDonnell, 2000). In a meta-analysis of 46 studies, Carton, et al.
(2002) found a moderate to large effect size showing a positive
relationship between team cohesiveness and performance. They recommended
team building focused on both task and social cohesiveness to promote
team performance. However, there appears to be little, if any research
specifically focused on the link between hazing and team cohesiveness.
A search of the PsychInfo data base found no articles using the
keywords "group cohesion," "hazing,"
"team," and "sports." One study (Turman, 2003)
examined the link between coaches' behaviors and team cohesiveness,
finding that negative behaviors (creating inequity, embarrassing
players, and using ridicule) reduced team cohesiveness, while positive
coach behaviors promoted team cohesiveness. It would be risky, however,
to generalize from this finding to the relationship between hazing
conducted by senior team members and the development of team
cohesiveness.
Therefore, the purpose of this research was to empirically assess
the validity of the claim that hazing serves to enhance team cohesion.
That is, to answer the question, "Does an effortful, painful, or
humiliating experience inflicted by more senior members of a team
increase new members' attraction to the team?" Two theoretical
perspectives appear to be relevant to this question, group identity and
Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance.
Group Identity
Group identity, group membership, and ingroup/outgroup
relationships are fundamental aspects of human social behavior. Being a
member of an ingroup confers a wide range of benefits on an individual,
including survival, protection from enemies, status, and access to group
resources. Being a member of a group also requires individuals to pay
certain costs, such as time, money, being subjected to social pressures,
and expending energy to further group goals (Brinthaupt, Moreland, &
Levine, 1991). Attraction to group membership, cohesiveness, is a
function of the balance between the costs and the benefits of membership
(Thibaut & Kelley, 1959).
When considering hazing and attraction to a sport team group, it
would seem that hazing increases the costs of membership without a
commensurate increase in benefits. This is so because in most instances
of sport hazing, the hazees (athletes) are already members of the team.
The hazing is simply an added cost of team membership. Even if the
hazing costs are considered in the decision of whether or not to join
the team, increased costs of group membership would not be expected to
increase attraction to group membership. Thus, from the group identity
perspective, hazing does not appear to be an effective way of increasing
attraction to the group.
Cognitive Dissonance
Early research generated by Festinger's (1957) theory of
cognitive dissonance (Aronson & Mills, 1959; Gerard & Mathewson,
1966) also addressed the effect of effortful initiations on attraction
to the group. From a dissonance theory perspective, the effort entailed
in a severe initiation, in order to join the group, must be justified by
the rewards of group membership. If a great deal of effort has been
expended in order to gain membership, a low level of reward would be
dissonant with cognitions about the effort. Aronson and Mills (1959) and
Gerard and Mathewson (1966) arranged for participants to complete
embarrassing or effortful or painful tasks in order to join a discussion
group. Upon gaining membership, the participants listened to a sample of
the group's interaction. Rather than the fascinating discussion of
a highly relevant topic that was implied by the name of the group, they
heard a dull, boring, halting, and inarticulate exchange between group
members. The low rewards of group membership were then dissonant with
the high costs entailed in the initiation. Participants reduced the
aversive dissonance by enhancing their perceptions of the attractiveness
of the group. Other participants who experienced an easy or trivial
initiation were allowed to listen to the same boring discussion. A
comparison of the evaluation of the group discussion by the two groups
showed that those who had undergone the severe initiation rated the
discussion group as significantly more attractive.
These results do demonstrate a positive effect of a severe
initiation on the attractiveness of group membership, but there are at
least three differences between these experiments and the commonly
practiced forms of hazing on sport teams. First, the initiation tasks
were imposed by the experimenters, not by the members of the discussion
group. In contrast, most hazing in sport is done by more senior team
members. Second, the initiation tasks were imposed to earn group
membership, rather than being imposed after membership has been granted,
as is the case in most sport hazing. Finally, in these experiments,
group membership was objectively unattractive and unrewarding. In
contrast, team membership in a sport setting is typically highly valued
by the new members. It appears then, that sport hazing, as usually
practiced, would not be expected to induce cognitive dissonance, but
rather would simply increase the costs of membership without a
commensurate increase in the rewards of membership. Because the
embarrassment, effort, and pain are inflicted by the senior team
members, the most likely outcome is reduced attraction to those
individuals, and consequently, to the team as whole.
Clearly, the two conceptual perspectives described above do not
exhaust the set of concepts that have been applied to explain the
effects of maltreatment on those who receive it (Keating et al, 2005).
However, the conditions under which hazing occurs on sport teams, as we
have outlined them, reduce the applicability of such mechanisms as
"the Stockholm sydrome" (West, 1993). Admittedly, other
psychological dependent variables may be affected by mal-treatment, both
on sport teams and in other settings. However, the focus of this
research is limited to the effects of hazing on team cohesiveness, as
operationally defined by the measures used.
Neither of the relevant conceptual analyses presented here supports
a prediction that hazing will lead to increased team cohesion, but the
empirical question remains; does hazing enhance team cohesion? The study
presented in this article was designed to provide evidence relevant to
that question.
Method
Participants
One-hundred and sixty-seven athletes (66 female and 98 male; 3 did
not report their gender) from six colleges and universities across the
United States were recruited for the study. Participants were members of
basketball (26%, n = 44), gymnastics (26%, n = 43), track and field
(22%, n = 36), ice hockey (10%, n = 17), and swimming and diving (16%, n
= 27) teams. Thirty-five percent of the sample (n = 59) were freshmen,
31% (n = 52) were sophomores, 23% (n = 39) were juniors, 7% (n = 12)
were seniors, and 2% (n = 3) were 5th year or graduate students (3
students did not indicate their year in school). The majority of the
sample was White (89%, n = 148), with 3% African American (n = 5), 2%
Asian (n = 4), 2% Hispanic (n = 3), and 3% other (n = 5) (2 students did
not provide race/ethnicity information). The majority of the
participants reported that they were not a member of a fraternity or
sorority (93%, n = 156). Seventy-six percent of the sample (n = 127)
reported living on campus and 24% (n = 40) reported living off-campus.
Sixty-four percent (n = 106) attended public institutions and 37% (n =
61) attended private institutions. Thirty-five percent came from urban
schools (n =59), 38% (n = 63) came from suburban schools, and 27% (n
=45) came from rural schools.
Instruments
Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ). A modified version of the
GEQ (Widmeyer, Brawley, & Carron, 1985) was used to assess four
components of team cohesion: group integration task (GIT; e.g.,
We'll all take responsibility for any loss or poor performance by
our team), group integration social (GIS; e.g., Our team would like to
spend time together in the off-season), attraction to the group task
(ATGT; e.g., I like this team's style of play), and attraction to
the group social (ATGS; e.g., Some of my best friends are on this team).
Participants rated their agreement with items on 9-point scales anchored
by 1 ("strongly disagree") and 9 ("strongly agree").
Adequate reliability and validity have been demonstrated for the GEQ
(Brawley, Carron, & Widmeyer, 1987; Li & Harmer, 1996).
Coefficient alphas for the four subscales ranged from .57 to .70 for
this sample.
Team Initiation Questionnaire (TIQ). The TIQ (Hoover, 1999) was
used to assess team initiation activities including: acceptable
behaviors, questionable behaviors, alcohol-related behaviors, and
unacceptable behaviors. Respondents were presented with 24 activities
and for each activity were asked whether they Did it or saw it, Heard
about it or suspected it, or Not done, seen, or heard about it. For
those activities that they had done or heard about, students were asked
to indicate whether the activity was A tradition or requirement,
Appropriate, Inappropriate, and Done when drinking alcohol. Students
were instructed to check all of these options that applied to the
behavior.
Social Desirability Questionnaire. Socially desirable response
biases were measured using the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale
(MCSD; Crowne and Marlowe, 1960). The reliability and validity of this
measure are well established.
Demographic Questionnaire. Participants were asked to indicate
their age, gender, year in school, race/ethnicity, location of campus
housing (on or off campus), campus type (public or private), involvement
in the Greek system (i.e., fraternities and sororities), location of
campus (urban, suburban, or rural), and sport team on which they
participated.
Procedure
Athletes who gave their informed consent to participate in this
research were given a packet of questionnaires in a counterbalanced
order. All participants completed the demographic questionnaire, GEQ,
TIQ, and social desirability questionnaires.
Results
Responses on the TIQ were analyzed to determine which activities
were considered appropriate and which were considered inappropriate.
Only responses of those participants who indicated that they did or saw
an activity, or heard about or suspected an activity, were included in
this analysis. Those activities that were categorized by the majority of
respondents as inappropriate were designated as hazing (inappropriate
team building behaviors) and those that were categorized by the majority
as appropriate were designated as appropriate team building behaviors.
Eleven activities were categorized as hazing and the other 13 activities
were categorized as appropriate team building behaviors. The activities
categorized as hazing and as appropriate behavior were grouped into
subcategories, as shown in Table 2. Hazing consists of being the passive
victim of physical or psychological abuse, being coerced into
self-abuse, or being coerced to abuse others. Acceptable team building
included required skill development or assessment, being coerced to
engage in deviant behavior, required team socialization activities, and
required positive behaviors. Coerced deviant behaviors under acceptable
team building included "Tattooing, piercing, head shaving, or
branding" and "Engaging in or simulating sex acts." These
activities may appear unacceptable to many segments of our society, and
they were intended to be perceived as questionable or unacceptable in
the original Hoover (1999) study, but they were rated as acceptable by
the participants in this study.
To examine how team building behaviors related to team cohesion,
the number of inappropriate activities done or seen by each participant
were summed to create a Hazing Index and the number of appropriate
behaviors done or seen was summed to create an Appropriate Team Building
Activity Index. The means and standard deviations for these indices are
reported in Table 3.
The Hazing Index and the Appropriate Team Building Activity Index
were correlated with the four subscales of the GEQ (see Table 3). Three
significant correlations were found. The Appropriate Team Building
Activity Index was positively correlated with the ATGS subscale of the
GEQ, indicting the more appropriate activities the participants did or
saw, the more positive feelings they had toward the group. The Hazing
Index was significantly negatively correlated with the ATGT subscale and
the GIT subscales of the GEQ indicating that the more hazing activities
the participants did or saw, the less they were attracted to the
group's task and the less bonding and closeness they felt about the
group's task. Separate correlations were run for males and females,
and there were no significant gender differences in the magnitude of any
of the correlations (all ps >.l0). To investigate the effect of
social desirability on these relationships, the above correlations were
recalculated as partial correlations, controlling for MCSD scores. The
correlations did not change significantly.
The pattern of correlations shown in Table 3 suggests that hazing
was negatively related to task cohesiveness, whereas appropriate team
building was positively related to social cohesiveness. To explore this
possibility two composite indices were constructed. A Task Cohesiveness
Index was constructed by summing ATGT and GIT scores. A Social
Cohesiveness Index was constructed by summing ATGS and GIS. The
conceptual and empirical justification for combining subscales of the
GEQ in this manner may be found in the article describing the
development of the instrument (Carton, Widmeyer &Brawley, 1985). The
Hazing Index was negatively related to the Task Cohesiveness Index (r =
-.22, p < .005), but not to the Social Cohesiveness Index (r = .07, p
= .40). The Appropriate Team Building Activity Index was positively
related to the Social Cohesiveness Index (r = .16, p < .05). but not
to the Task Cohesiveness Index (r = -.06, p = .48).
To explore the relationship of both appropriate team building and
hazing with overall cohesiveness, two additional composite indices were
constructed. An Overall Team Building Index was constructed by
subtracting the Hazing Index from the Appropriate Team Building Activity
Index to reflect the relative balance of hazing and team building
activities experienced by the participant. Higher scores on the Overall
Team Building Index indicate more team building than hazing, whereas
lower or negative scores indicate more hazing than team building. An
Overall Group Cohesiveness Index was constructed by summing the four
subscales of the GEQ (Carron, Widmeyer & Brawley, 1985). Overall
Team Building was significantly positively related to Overall Group
Cohesiveness (r = .17, p = .03), whereas neither the Hazing Index (r =
-.08, p = .34) nor the Appropriate Team Building Activity Index (r =
.07, p = .41) were related to the Overall Group Cohesiveness Index.
Discussion
Hazing continues to be as issue affecting sport participants.
Although some of the hazing behaviors shown in Table 2 (e.g., kidnapped or transported and abandoned) were reported only rarely, others were
reported to have occurred quite frequently (e.g., participating in a
drinking contest). Fortunately, many of the acceptable team building
behaviors were the ones most widely reported (e.g., dressing up for team
functions, keeping a specific grade point average). Thus, hazing is not
confined to the highly negative events that are reported in the mass
media and are an aspect of sport that deserves both scientific and
regulatory scrutiny.
Arguments that justify hazing because it increases team cohesion
are not supported by the data and analyses reported in this study.
Hazing, as defined by the unacceptable behaviors shown in Table 2, was
negatively correlated with task attraction and integration, and is
unrelated to social attraction and integration. In contrast, appropriate
team building activities are related to higher levels of social
attraction and integration. It should be noted that some of the coerced
deviant behaviors rated as acceptable team building behaviors by the
participants in this study may appear to be unacceptable to a large
segment of contemporary American society (Table 2). It is beyond the
scope of this research to attempt to delineate the norms that define
acceptable behavior in contemporary undergraduate culture. However,
other researchers (Borsari & Carey, 1999; Larimer, Irvine, Kilmer,
& Marlatt, 1997) have begun to do so and have found that excessive
alcohol use and other risky behaviors are more likely to be accepted or
tolerated by college undergraduates. Additionally, the behaviors
included in the category, "Coerced deviant behaviors," may be
perceived as less personally demeaning than those in the category,
"Coerced self-abuse or degradation" and, therefore, more
acceptable as part of team building. Clearly, more research is needed to
identify the specific activities used in hazing and team building, and
to define the norms that are applied in making judgments of
acceptability.
The relationships among hazing, team building, and cohesion are
even clearer when it is considered the Hazing Index and the Appropriate
Team Building Activity Index were correlated with the Task Cohesiveness
Index and the Social Cohesiveness Index. Hazing was associated with
lower levels of task cohesiveness, and was unrelated to social
cohesiveness. Appropriate team building activity was associated with
higher levels of social cohesiveness and was unrelated to task
cohesiveness. As new members of a team, the initiates must develop bonds
of attraction with older team members. Acceptable team building
activities (as determined empirically in this study) appear to
accomplish that. It should be noted that the correlations in this study
between hazing and team cohesions were quite small, accounting for less
than 6% of the variance between the variables. Future researchers may
want to include other factors, such as the frequency and intensity of
hazing activities and the effects of the role of hazer compared to hazee
to further explore this relationship.
It is interesting to note that task cohesiveness was not correlated
with appropriate team building, even though appropriate team building
activities were associated with higher levels of social cohesiveness. On
the other hand, hazing may act to reduce task attraction and prevent
task integration with the team. This pattern of results implies that
task cohesiveness may develop from a different set of experiences than
those included in appropriate team building activities. If we assume
that task attraction is initially high for these athletes (after all,
this is the sport they have chosen and in which they have competed well
enough to become a member of an intercollegiate team), then team
building that does not include specific task-related elements might be
expected to have little impact on task cohesiveness, even though social
cohesiveness may be enhanced. Indeed, only two of the team building
behaviors shown in Table 2 are sport-specific (i.e., attending
pre-season practice; being tested for skill, endurance, or performance
in a sport). It may be that task cohesiveness develops primarily from
shared positive experiences performing the team task in practice and
competition. Although competition almost always includes the risk of
losing, coaches could structure practices to foster the development of
task cohesiveness more effectively.
Finally, the Overall Team Building index, reflecting the relative
balance of hazing and acceptable team building, was positively related
to the Overall Group Cohesiveness Index, showing that the less hazing
and the more acceptable team building that athletes experienced, the
higher their level of overall attraction and integration. Thus, there is
no empirical support for the practice of hazing in this study. These
results are congruent with earlier research (Lodewijkx & Syroit,
1997; 2001) that has also found no support for the efficacy of severe
initiations in enhancing group attractiveness in natural settings not
related to sports.
One limitation of this study was that individual athletes rather
than teams were studied. This approach allowed inferences to be made
across sports and institutions. Future researchers might include
assessment of large teams at a single institution to evaluate
differences in hazing and cohesion within a particular setting.
Consideration might also be given to assessing teams within the same
sport but at different institutions. However, a large sample would be
needed to allow inferences about the effects of hazing practices to be
discernable against the background of differences between institutions.
Hazing exposes athletes to physical and psychological risks, and is
associated with reduced rather than greater team cohesiveness. Why,
then, does hazing remain popular as a team building tactic? And how can
hazing be stopped? Research focused on the attitudes and beliefs of
athletes, coaches, and the administrators of collegiate sports programs
may help identify strategies for reducing hazing. Belief in the efficacy
of hazing can be addressed by the dissemination of evidence such as that
reported in this article. Tolerant attitudes about hazing practices on
the part of coaches and administrators may change as awareness of the
dangers continues to increase. Clear anti-hazing policies and vigorous
enforcement may deter team veterans from hazing "just because they
were hazed." Effective, research-based team building programs can
be designed to replace hazing. These and other tactics should be
explored by researchers and, when sufficiently well-supported by data,
they should implemented by teams and institutions
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Judy L. Van Raalte and Allen E. Cornelius
Springfield College
Darwyn E. Linder
Arizona State University
Britton W. Brewer
Springfield College
Address Correspondence To: Judy L. Van Raalte, Center for
Performance Enhancement and Applied Research, Department of Psychology,
Springfield College, Springfield, MA 01109. Phone: (413) 748-3388,
e-mail:
[email protected]
Table 1.
Number of Hazing Incidents from Lexis Nexis Search
Sport
Auto Racing 1
Baseball 3
Basketball 16
Football 33
Horse Racing 1
Lacrosse 1
Powder Puff Football 1 (a)
Soccer 4
Track & Field 1
W restling 1
Total 62
(a) Hazing involving fern ales
Table 2.
Team Initiation Questionnaire Behaviors Categorized
as Unacceptable or Acceptable and the Number and Percent
of Respondents Who Reported Doing or Seeing the Behavior
and Who Reported Hearing About or Suspecting the Behavior
Number and Number and
(%) who (%) who
reported reported
doing or hearing
seeing it about or
suspected
it
Unacceptable team building behaviors
Passive victim of abuse *
Kidnapped or transported and abandoned 14 (9%) 20 (12%)
Yelled, cursed, or sworn at 90 (55%) 27 (17%)
Paddled, whipped, beaten, kicked,
or beating up others 23 (14%) 25 (15%)
Tied up, taped, or confined in small
places 28 (17%) 17 (11%)
Coerced self-abuse or degradation *
Consuming extremely hot or disgusting
concoctions 27 (16%) 23 (14%)
Participating in a drinking contest 85 (53%) 34 (21%)
Depriving oneself of food, sleep,
or hygiene 31 (l9%) 30 (18%)
Acting as personal servant to other
players off the field, court 20 (12%) 28 (17%)
Coerced abuse of others *
Associating with only specific people,
not others 33 (20%) 45 (27%)
Making prank phone calls or harassing
others 51 (31%) 21 (13%)
Destroying or stealing property 33 (20%) 26 (16%)
Acceptable team building behaviors
Skill development or assessment*
Attending pre-season practice 138 (91%) 5 (3%)
Tested for skill, endurance, or
performance in a sport 120 (76%) 11 (7%)
Taking an oath or signing a contract
of standards 82 (51%) 22 (14%)
Participating in a calisthenics contest
not related to sport 39 (24%) 23 (14%)
Completing a ropes course or team trip 65 (40%) 21 (13%)
Coerced deviant behaviors *
Tattooing, piercing, head shaving,
or branding 58 (36%) 27 (17%)
Wearing embarrassing clothing 67 (41%) 29 (18%)
Engaging in or simulating sex acts 45 (28%) 19 (12%)
Consuming alcohol during recruitment
visits 68 (43%) 34 (21%)
Team socialization activities *
Attending a skit night or team roast 67 (41%) 18 (11%)
Dressing up for team functions
(other than uniforms) 113 (70%) 16 (10%)
Required positive behaviors *
Keeping a specific grade point average 112 (70%) 25 (16%)
Doing volunteer community service 87 (54%) 31 (19%)
* Subcategories of team building behaviors developed
by the authors, based on a rational analysis.
Table 3.
Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Between Hazing
Indices and GEQ Subscale Scores
ATGS ATGT
M (SD) 35.31 (8.14) 28.36 (6.11)
.05 -.18 *
Hazing Index 2.60 (2.62) [.01] [-.15]
.16 * -.04
Appropriate Index 6.39 (3.13) [.14] [-.04]
GIT GIS
25.78 (5.83) 26.58 (5.38)
-.23 ** .08
Hazing Index [-.20] [-.00]
-.06 .11
Appropriate Index [-.04] [.07]
Note. Correlations in brackets [] are the partial correlations
controlling for MCSD scores. Partial correlations are not
significantly different from zero order correlations.
* p <.05, ** p <.01