Treatment of Fourth Class Midshipmen: Hazing and Its Impact on Academic and Military Performance; and Psychological and Physical Health
Abstract
Several serious hazing incidents at the U.S. Naval Academy in the early 1990s forced the Department of Defense (DoD) to commission the General Accounting Office (GAO) to conduct a study on hazing at the Nation's service academies. The resulting report, published in 1992, outlined the depth of the hazing issue and the physical and psychological effects of hazing on midshipmen and cadets. Furthermore, GAO provided the service academies with measures that they believed would reduce hazing and improve the indoctrination process. No follow-up study has been conducted to date. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the nature and prevalence of hazing at the U.S. Naval Academy compared to the original 1992 GAO findings. Specifically, the thesis examines the nature and prevalence of hazing at the academy, how rates compare to those reported in the 1992 study, and the relationship between hazing and academic and military performance and psychological and physical health. The GAO study's hypotheses were tested using a series of cross-tabulation analyses, Pearson-correlation coefficients, and multiple hierarchical regressions on data for Fourth Class Development System classes 2005 through 2008. Cross tabulation analyses measured the prevalence of 23 hazing behaviors in the sample population; correlation coefficients measured the relationship between hazing and several performance and health outcomes; and multiple hierarchical regression analyses assessed the impact of hazing on academic and military performance and psychological and physical health. The study results show that hazing behavior has declined in the past 12 years. They also show that hazing correlates to all of the outcomes examined, except academic and military performance. Finally, the regression analyses show that hazing impacts psychological and physical health, but only partially impacts academic and military performance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA435757
Entities
People
- Joseph S. Groah
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School