Theses and Dissertations

Advisor

Roberston, Mary Nelson

Committee Member

Burke, Benjamin

Committee Member

Wiese, Dawn

Committee Member

Phillips, Tommy

Date of Degree

5-15-2026

Original embargo terms

Immediate Worldwide Access

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Human Development & Family Science

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Department

School of Human Sciences

Abstract

Hazing remains pervasive and underreported, disproportionately affecting adolescent and emerging adult men, particularly within athletic teams and fraternity contexts. Although hazing is most often studied within collegiate organizations, many students encounter hazing behaviors prior to college, yet little is known about how these early experiences shape later hazing perceptions, motivations, tolerance, and masculine norms. Grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT) model, this dissertation conceptualizes hazing as a developmental process shaped by repeated social interactions, individual characteristics, contextual environments, and time across adolescence and emerging adulthood. Using a two-paper approach with a quantitative, longitudinal survey design, study 1 examined fraternity new members’ perceptions and attitudes toward high school hazing, focusing on hazing motivation, hazing tolerance, and conformity to masculine norms, while study 2 focused on the same cohort of newly initiated Interfraternity Council (IFC) fraternity members at a large southeastern public university. Measures included an adapted hazing motivation scale assessing solidarity and unity, loyalty and commitment, and social dominance (McCreary & Schutts, 2019), a hazing tolerance measure (McCreary & Schutts, 2019), and the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory-30 (CMNI-30). Results indicated variability in students’ tolerance of hazing, with solidarity and unity emerging as the most strongly endorsed motivation for hazing in high school. However, social dominance and loyalty and commitment-oriented motivations were more closely associated with conformity to specific masculine norms and higher hazing tolerance. Greater endorsement of specific masculine norms, specifically, winning, risk-taking, and violence, was significantly associated with increased tolerance for hazing. Social dominance from high school was shown to be a significant predictor of students’ tolerance for hazing in college during the fraternity new member process. Positioning perceptions of hazing within a developmental and ecological framework highlights the importance of early, developmentally informed prevention that begins before college for various populations.

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