Ending the cycle: Scholars' perspectives on hazing prevention

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to synthesize the knowledge of hazing experts to explore hazing prevention techniques. Preventing hazing in sport has been studied, analyzed, and explored through various research designs centered on strategies of athlete education, cultural change, and replacement activities. However, literature has lacked a study that compares and integrates these methods within the practice of prevention. This study begins to conceptually fill that void. To critically examine, compare, and integrate hazing prevention methods, published hazing scholars were surveyed using the Delphi technique. All participants had published at least one peer-reviewed publication on hazing written in English. Using the Delphi technique, participants were surveyed three times, with each iteration being developed from the results of the previous survey. The first survey had fifteen participants, the second had fourteen, and the third had eleven. The survey responses were analyzed using thematic coding. Participating scholars provided detailed descriptions of best practices with prevention strategies centered on athlete education, cultural change, and replacement activities. Importantly, participating scholars identified that all hazing prevention methods should be implemented as much as possible as they are often connected, interrelated, and have the potential to be most effective when utilized together.