| Many fraternities, sororities, and collegiate sports engage in harsh initiation practices. Family upbringing can often affect personality, and personality is often correlated with adjustment in college (Deniz, 2011). Personality research (Hines & Saudino, 2008) states that individuals who are high in neuroticism, tend to be more hostile and impulsive. Additionally, individuals who are low in agreeableness tend to be hostile and irritable and also feel a need to attack or punish others. Both of these personality traits are comprised of aggressive behavior. In fact, this research additionally states that high levels of neuroticism are associated with the use of physical and emotional aggression among male college students and the use of physical aggression among a sample of women. Self-esteem is a central aspect of self-concept and can affect social conformity (Pollastri, Cardemil & O'Donnell, 2010). When comparing hazing to bullying, research stated that victims of bullying have significantly lower self-esteem than those who are not bullied. Interestingly, self-esteem scores for victim/bullies (those who are both bullies and victims of bullying) were significantly lower than scores of pure bullies. Pontzer (2010) found that bullying in college was associated with being a bully during childhood, and parental stigmatization. Being a victim of bullying in college was positively associated with being both a victim and bully in childhood. Bullies/ aggressors and victims can be categorized in the same schema when related to hazing. Hazing can involve risky behavior, life-threatening activities and is officially banned by all national Greek organizations (Tokar & Stewart, 2010). Additionally, there have been more deaths since 1990 related to hazing, pledging and initiation accidents than all documented history of these types of deaths (Hollman, 2002).;The purpose of this study was to enhance our understanding of hazing victims and perpetrators in undergraduate hazing in Greek life and organized sports. Past research has implicated parental conflict (Deniz, 2011; Kosson, Steuerwald, Newman & Widom, 1994; Lopez & Thurman, 2001; Nelson, Hughes, Handal, Katz & Searight, 1993), neuroticism (Anderson, John, Keltner & Kring, 2001; Hines & Saudino, 2008), agreeableness (Hines & Saudino, 2008), extraversion (Anderson, John, Keltner & Kring, 200; Hines & Saudino, 2008), self-esteem (Pollastri, Cardemil & O'Donnell, 2010; Salami, 2011) and anger (Lopez & Thurman, 2001; Pontzer, 2010) in the prediction of future outcomes. One hundred and sixty seven college students who are involved in Greek organizations or organized intercollegiate sports were asked to complete a series of self-report measures assessing parental conflict before college, personality (extraversion, neuroticism and agreeableness), anger, self-esteem and involvement in hazing. Path Analysis was utilized to test three proposed models. Model one proposed that high parental conflict, low neuroticism, high agreeableness, low extraversion, low self-esteem and high anger predict an individual who is hazed by others. Model two proposed that high parental conflict, high neuroticism, low agreeableness, high extraversion, moderate to high self-esteem and high anger predict an individual who hazes others. In Model three, that high parental conflict, high neuroticism, low agreeableness, high extraversion, low self-esteem and high anger would predict an individual who is hazed and hazes others. In model one, there were six significant findings. In model two, there were five significant findings. Last, in model three, there were six significant findings. Positive relationships were found between parental conflict and anger and extraversion and self-esteem. Negative relationships found were between parental conflict and self-esteem; neuroticism and self-esteem and anger and agreeableness. Two additional negative relationships found were between extraversion and being someone who is hazed, and extraversion and being someone who is both hazed and hazes others. Models two and three accounted for the same amount of total effect size and had the highest amount when compared to model one and post-hoc model four. It was found that model three was the best model as it contained the most statistically significant relationships and the highest amount of total effect size. Although a simpler model with higher total effect size is often preferred, when one looks at the models more carefully, the highest total effects lie only on one side of the model, whereas in model three, it is dispersed more evenly.;An exploratory independent behavioral measure was also utilized to find out which of the subjects are more likely to find out about the dangers and myths of hazing. Interestingly, only 23 out of 167 people agreed to go onto a website that outlined the dangers of hazing. Clinical implications are proposed, study limitations and directions for future research are discussed. |
