Surveys Conducted by Dr. Susan Lipkins
Survey: Combined Results
Some of the questions on the various surveys were the same and therefore a statistical analysis was done to determine the combined results. The number of actual responses are reported in the parenthesis. Here are the findings.
- 94% of respondents (128) agree that Coaches have a lot of power.
- 70% of respondents (256) agree that the Coach can be a father figure to the athletes.
- 66% of respondents (51) agree that the primary goal of a coach is to win.
More than ninety percent agree that coaches have a lot of power, seventy percent see the coach as a father figure to athletes and sixty six percent believe that the primary goal of a coach is to win. These statistics illustrate my point, that coaches have the power to change the culture of the team. Coaches can choose sportsmanship and character development in addition to winning, as the goals to be achieved.
- 60% of respondents (199) agree that it is important to tolerate psychological stress.
- 46% of respondents (178) agree that the most important thing is to keep the code of silcence.
- 36% of respondents (152) agree that the extreme consumption of something is an important aspect of initiation.
- 19% of respondents (177) agree that some disturbing things happened during initiation.
Sixty percent of the respondents agree that tolerating psychological stress is a goal of initiations. This supports the concept that hazing is a "head game." Almost half believe that it is important to keep the code of silence, which means "don't report a hazing." This strong guiding light is one of the biggest dilemmas in terms of hazing prevention and intervention. If we teach our childen "not to tell" then the culture of hazing will continue to spread, becoming more dangerous each year.
More than one third confirmed my observation, that extreme consumption is part of initiation. Unfortunately, many of the deaths from hazing, are due to extreme consumption, of alcohol and water!
Almost twenty percent admit that disturbing things happen during initiations, and I am sure that the actual statistic is much higher. However, when combined with the statistic that forty-six percent believe it is important not to tell, we can see that most disturbing things that occur during initiations will never be discovered, and therefore will never end, despite the havoc that such things might bring to the victims, bystanders and even to the perpetrators!