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Hazing Prevention Insights and Resources

Hazing prevention is possible! Comprehensive programs must be multi-level and encompass multiple strategies and assessed for effectiveness. We emphasize campus-based preventive strategies to combat hazing, risky drinking, and violence and strengthen constructive accountability that prioritizes prevention and students doing the right thing. 

Call or email the Piazza Center for assistance today! Our research-driven suggestions target the underlying factors of hazing while promoting healthier fraternities, sororities, student organizations, and athletic programs to build safer and stronger campus communities. 

Defining Hazing

Piazza Center Comprehensive Definition of Hazing:  Hazing is a power dynamic behavior aimed at screening, fostering bonds, or establishing standing in organizations that risks the health and safety of individuals, causing deliberate or unforeseen physical and/or emotional harm counter to organization purposes. Citation: Piazza Center. (2024). Comprehensive hazing definition: Motivations, mechanisms, antecedents, and effects. Penn State University: Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research 

(2024). Comprehensive hazing definition: Motivations, mechanisms, antecedents, and effects. Penn State University: Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research 

Guides to curb and prevent hazing

The following resources are aimed at quality hazing prevention that will reduce the number and severity of incidents and increase student safety and wellbeing. Together, we can work towards a safer and more respectful community.

  • Modeling Hazing from High School to College and College to Organizations
    The Piazza Center Horizontal Campus Hazing Model offers a thorough perspective on how individual participation in hazing, intergroup dynamics, and group relationships interact within communities. This model serves as a framework for the accompanying monograph, assisting practitioners in shaping prevention and intervention strategies. 
  • Utilizing the Horizontal Hazing Model in Prevention
    This guide is designed for campus and organizational professionals and volunteers, encouraging them to consider and implement the model at individual, organizational, and community levels. 
  • Enacting Change at All Levels of the Horizontal Hazing Model
    Multilevel strategies reduce hazing. This guide reviews six individual, six organizational, and six community levels strategies.
  • Employing Situational Strength in Hazing Prevention 
    Situational strength (Meyer et al., 2010) suggests that environmental cues signal individuals and organizations about what behaviors are accepted and valued. 
  • Designing Effective and Comprehensive Hazing Prevention
    Research-driven insights highlight key strategies and the individual, organizational and community levels that inform comprehensive hazing prevention programs. This guide suggests policies and programs as well as outlines promising practices that need more study.
  • Leading  Hazing Prevention Efforts
    Student Affairs Officers have an opportunity to develop comprehensive and effective Hazing Prevention Programs. This guide reviews concepts to consider as well as provides a checklist. 
  • Developing Organizational or Campus Amnesty Policy
    Amnesty Policies aim to eliminate barriers for students or organizations seeking help. This guide offers fundamental questions, template language, and research to facilitate the development of such policies. 
  • Creating a Peer Mentor and Mentee Program
    Well-executed peer mentoring programs can significantly enhance feelings of belonging, mental well-being, persistence, and retention within organizations and campuses. This guide assists in crafting positive mentoring initiatives. 
  • Recognizing Signs of Hazing
    With an increased understanding of hazing causes, practitioners often find it challenging to apply this knowledge in detecting hazing instances. This guide helps practitioners identify early warning signs of hazing behavior within student groups and organizations. 
  • Intervening Ideas for Group Advisors
    Alumni offer practical insights on strategies to combat hazing mindsets within chapters
  • Utilizing Data for Effective Hazing Prevention Programs
    Researchers categorize campus data into four types—diagnostic data, implementation data, efficacy data, and data usage—to inform hazing prevention initiatives. This guide delineates four essential activities to enhance hazing prevention efforts, based on the What Works prevention study. 
  • Ensuring Fidelity for Hazing Prevention Program Implementation
    Effective hazing prevention necessitates thorough assessment. This guide emphasizes the importance of assurance, capacity, and saturation in developing and executing impactful hazing prevention programs that can significantly reduce the incidence and severity of hazing. 
  • Analyzing hazing and Related Behaviors: A Solutions-Focused Approach 
    This comprehensive literature review presents an in-depth understanding of hazing and prevention from high school through college. The monograph is structured around the interplay of individual engagement in hazing, intergroup dynamics, and group relationships. Key features include a Hazing Prevention Matrix, practical case studies, and a detailed Horizontal Campus Hazing Model. The Piazza Center collaborated with Dr. Pietro Sasso, Research Fellow, and Dr. Bryan Joyce, Scholar, in January 2021 to conduct a thorough review of hazing prevention literature. In Fall 2021, in partnership with Dr. Patrick Biddix from the University of Tennessee, this initiative expanded with support from the North American Interfraternity Conference, with Dr. Emily Perlow joining the team. 
  • Staffing Impact of University Fraternity and Sorority Programs on Student Success
    Initial findings indicate a potential correlation between staffing models and chapter-level outcomes.