Methodology
The study was based on a two-page survey instrument sent to high school students around the United States. 确定了全国高中生的商业名单. A composite list of more than eight million names and home addresses from among approximately 15 million high school students in the country was used to draw a random national sample of 20,000, 由后辈和前辈分层. 2000年4月，调查问卷邮寄到2万名学生的家庭住址. A follow-up, 一级明信片至五张,000 students for whom we still maintained access to their names was mailed one-week after the survey mailing encouraged students to respond. The mailing lists were destroyed following this one-time use for research purposes only. 邮局以无法投递为由退回.原来调查的46%. 因此，我们假定最多有18 600人到达目的地. 我们在邮件中收到了1541份完成的、可用的调查问卷. 因此，样本反映的是8.28 percent response rate.
Survey Instrument
开发了一种面向高中生的问卷调查工具. 一封求职信宣布了调查结果, 提供足够的调查信息以构成知情同意, 并说明了调查报告的截止日期. 随信附上一个已付邮资的回邮信封. 该文书涵盖以下领域:
Background: Sex, race, state of residence, location (urban, suburban, rural), grade in school, school type (public, private, home), 以及任何类型组织的成员资格.
欺凌的定义和经验: Students were asked, for each type of group, 如果他们是被骗加入的, 不是因为害怕被欺负才加入的, 或者因此离开了小组. 学生们被问到他们第一次被欺负是在什么年龄, if ever; if they would report hazing; and what they thought were the most effective strategies for preventing hazing.
Initiation Activities: Finally, the survey asked what activities were expected of them to join a high school group or team. Four categories of initiation behaviors were used from last year's study of NCAA athletes: community building, humiliating, substance abuse, and endangering. The first group of behaviors had the most changes since we'd learned the most about it from last year's survey. The last groups of behaviors remained fairly stable with a few items edited and a few items added. The final behavior list had 36 behaviors as opposed to 27 behaviors on the 1999 survey form.
Open-ended Questions: Students were consistently asked for their input on such items as: other prevention strategies, 参与原因, 结果就是经历, feelings afterwards, 以及期望他们做的事情.
为这项调查开发的新项目是高中群体的分类, motivational factors, consequences of hazing.
Respondents
大多数回应的学生就读于公立学校(90%), 而只有5%的人就读于教会学校, 5%的学生就读于其他私立学校, 1%的人在家接受教育. 所有地理类型都有代表:郊区占46%, 30%来自农村，25%来自城市, 用自我认知量表来衡量. Successful students were disproportionately represented in the sample: 84 percent reported average grades of A or B, 14 percent C, and one percent D or F.
人口的综合估计
The sample of respondents was regionally proportional to the Federal Current Population Survey data for sixteen and seventeen year olds in the United States in September 1999. 中西部学生的反应略高于预期. 当中西部地区被打折时，其他地区的价格是成比例的.
In terms of gender, the sample had a much higher response rate from females than from males.
| Gender | Sample % | n | National % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 68.4 | 1054 | 48.7 |
| Male | 31.6 | 487 | 51.3 |
Eighty (80.1)与全国估计的78%相比，样本中有1%是白人.3 percent. 因为当前人口调查没有记录西班牙裔, we are not able to directly compare all the ethic origin responses to the current national statistics. 我们的样本大致接近如下所示的全国分布.
| Ethnic Origin | Sample % | n | National % |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | 80.1 | 1144 | 78.3 |
| Hispanic | 7.0 | 100 | |
| Black | 6.9 | 99 | 16.1 |
| Asian | 3.0 | 43 | 4.4 |
| Native American | .6 | 8 | 1.2 |
| Other | 2.4 | 34 |
Findings are therefore reported based on the sample weighted by gender and region to best approximate anticipated national percentages as closely as possible given these data. For weighting, the high school student population was estimated by taking the federal Current Population Survey data for sixteen and seventeen year-olds in September 1999 and multiplying by 71 percent, 联邦政府对学校参与的估计. 估计整个高中适龄人口, 所有14岁和15岁的孩子都加在这个数字上. 因此，整个高中学龄人口估计为13 628 460人.
Based on the survey, 91 percent of the students joined high school groups and of those 48.4%的学生遭受过某种形式的欺侮. Based on this finding, an estimated six million high school students in the United States were subjected to hazing in the past four years, 或者说每年有超过150万的学生. Given the limitations of this study, more studies are needed to verify and refine this estimate.
There were approximately 8,096,967 16 and 17 year olds in the United States in September 1999. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that 71 percent of 17-year-olds are enrolled in high school. Discounting by 71 percent, we estimated 5,748,847 juniors and seniors in high schools nationally.
| Northeast | Mid-west | South | West | Total % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 556832 | 701130 | 1007727 | 687851 | 51.33 |
| Female | 527976 | 664796 | 955505 | 652205 | 48.67 |
| Total % | 18.87 | 23.67 | 34.15 | 23.31 | 100 |
| Northeast | Mid-west | South | West | Total % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 74 | 159 | 149 | 97 | 31.6 |
| Female | 175 | 315 | 353 | 176 | 68.4 |
| Total % | 16.5 | 31 | 32.5 | 17.9 | 100 |
按性别和地区对样本进行分层, we divided the estimated national population by the number respondents in the sample to weight the sample for national synthetic estimation. 样本取自高中三年级和四年级学生. 有人认为，鉴于调查的内容, it would be better to address it to older students rather than the younger students and that they could reflect on their entire high school experience.
数据收集和处理
调查问卷直接邮寄到学生的家庭住址. Surveys were returned to Alfred University in self-addressed, stamped business reply envelopes. 申报表的邮戳日期不得迟于2000年5月15日. 截止日期后一周, on May 27, 2000, 所有的调查都被装箱邮寄给国家计算机系统公司, Inc (NCS)用于光学扫描. 为了确保匿名性，调查问卷上没有唯一标识符. 定性答复是手工编制的. The final database including all respondents was transferred to a secure server at Alfred University.
Statistical Analyses
Initially, frequency tables were analyzed for each respondent group of students and staff by the entire group and by each demographic variable. 使用性别和地理区域的交叉标签来开发样本权重. Each of the six groups of males and females by region were weighted by the sample frequency divided by the population to produce synthetic estimations of prevalence and to produce percentages expected for the population based on this currently limited set of knowledge.
Factor analyses were run to test our theoretical categories of community-building, humiliating, substance abuse, 危险的入会仪式. 因子分析证实了这些分类. 通过这些分析可以更好地理解一些行为:
- "Tattoo, pierce, or shave" is more about isolation than about being hurtful to self.
- "Deprive oneself of food, sleep, 或者清洁和药物滥用行为, 哪些是关于伤害自己而不是羞辱自己的, although for face validity we left this variable in the humiliating hazing category.
- “喝酒或运动到昏倒”与药物滥用行为有关, which are about being hurtful to self rather than being destructive or disruptive.
进一步研究各组间的显著差异, 采用卡方统计进行交叉表分析. Demographic groups were crossed with activities to identify at-risk groups and hot spots, while the perceived hazing variables were crossed with variables to validate perceived versus actual hazing. Group variables were crossed with demographic variables to identify group differences. 性别与所有变量交叉，以确定男性和女性的差异.
Limitations of the Study
因为欺侮活动是保密的, 我们通过直接邮寄调查来保证完全匿名. 高中生对邮件调查的回复率一直很低. 低回复率需要进一步的研究来证实或反驳, 并进一步完善这些发现. 样本量足够大, however, to use inferential statistical analyses with high levels of confidence (95-99%).