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Developing an instrument to assess college students' attitudes toward pledging and hazing in Greek letter organizations - Statistical Data Included
College Student Journal, Sept, 2001 by Kevin Cokley, Kesi Miller, Dana Cunningham, Janice Motoike, Aisha King, Germine Awad
Discussion
The goal of this current study was to develop an instrument which measured attitudes about Greek letter organizations. Factor analysis revealed six factors which ,described different areas of attitudes toward Greek letter organizations: Purpose of Pledging, Impact of Pledging, Conformity to Pledging Rules, Perceptions of Greek Organizations, Moral Concerns about Pledging, and Beliefs about Pledging Difficulty. The SAAP appears to have marginal to adequate internal consistency. There is some evidence of construct validity through the differences by gender, ethnicity, and Greek affiliation.
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The findings of this study have implications for psychologists working with hazing perpetrators and victims, as well as college student personnel and student affairs administrators working with Greek letter organizations. Regardless of whether you call the process of joining a Greek letter organization pledging, rushing, or membership intake, it is obvious that there are students who do value Greek letter organizations, and see some sort of pledge process as desirable. Likewise, it is apparent that when students' perceptions of Greek letter organizations are uncritically positive, they become susceptible to hazing activities. The challenge is to thoroughly educate students about the positive and negative aspects of the Greek experience, so that the students can make fully informed decisions about participation.
Future researchers should conduct additional studies using this scale with several samples in order to replicate the findings of this study. Larger Greek and ethnic minority samples should be sought. The results of this study suggest that future researchers need to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and various attitudes about G reek organizations (i.e. Purpose of Pledging). Also, future researchers should explicate the cultural differences between predominantly Black, White, and Hispanic Greek organizations and how these differences may influence student perceptions.
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