The Influence of Fraternity and Sorority Involvement E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: J-B ASHE-ERIC Report Series (AEHE)
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 275

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Despite negative connotations and empirical evidence to support detrimental aspects of fraternity and sorority membership, decades of nationally representative data show students remain interested in joining. This monograph reconsiders the value of membership, based on scholarly research published since 1996 in the following ways: * Through identifying behavioral, psychological and educational outcomes of fraternity/sorority involvement * By differentiating outcomes between and among organizations * Through recommending implications for policy and practice based on research. Findings revealed an unexpected amount of scholarly research interest on fraternity and sorority involvement, and membership correlates in the last two decades from a variety of disciplines. Despite a disproportionate focus on behavioral correlates, such as alcohol use, hazing and sexual assault, researchers in the past decade have slowly added psychosocial and educational considerations, building toward a more holistic understanding of outcomes related to involvement.

Leseprobe

ASHE Higher Education Report: Volume 39, Number 6

Kelly Ward, Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel, Series Editors

The Influence of Fraternity and Sorority Involvement: A Critical Analysis of Research (1996-2013)

J. Patrick Biddix

Malinda M. Matney

Eric M. Norman

Georgianna L. Martin

The Influence of Fraternity and Sorority Involvement: A Critical Analysis of Research (1996–2013)J. Patrick Biddix, Malinda M. Matney, Eric M. Norman, Georgianna L. Martin ASHE Higher Education Report: Volume 39, Number 6 Kelly Ward, Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel, Series Editors

Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, c/o John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030; [phone], fax [phone], www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Cover image by © desuza communications/iStockphoto.

ISSN 1551-6970 electronic   ISSN 1554-6306   ISBN 978-1-1188-6691-7

The ASHE Higher Education Report is part of the Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series and is published six times a year by Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company, at Jossey-Bass, One Montgomery Street, Suite 1200, San Francisco, California 94104-4594.

Individual subscription rate (in USD): $174 per year US/Can/Mex, $210 rest of world; institutional subscription rate: $327 US, $387 Can/Mex, $438 rest of world. Single copy rate: $29. Electronic only–all regions: $174 individual, $327 institutional; Print & Electronic–US: $192 individual, $376 institutional; Print & Electronic–Canada/Mexico: $192 individual, $436 institutional; Print & Electronic–Rest of World: $228 individual, $487 institutional. See the Back Issue/Subscription Order Form in the back of this volume.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Prospective authors are strongly encouraged to contact Kelly Ward ([email protected]) or Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel ([email protected]). See “About the ASHE Higher Education Report Series” in the back of this volume. Visit the Jossey-Bass Web site at www.josseybass.com.

The ASHE Higher Education Report is indexed in CIJE: Current Index to Journals in Education (ERIC), Education Index/Abstracts (H.W. Wilson), ERIC Database (Education Resources Information Center), Higher Education Abstracts (Claremont Graduate University), IBR & IBZ: International Bibliographies of Periodical Literature (K.G. Saur), and Resources in Education (ERIC).

Advisory Board

The ASHE Higher Education Report Series is sponsored by the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), which provides an editorial advisory board of ASHE members.

Ben Baez

Florida International University

Amy Bergerson

University of Utah

Edna Chun

University of North Carolina Greensboro

Susan K. Gardner

University of Maine

MaryBeth Gasman

University of Pennsylvania

Karri Holley

University of Alabama

Adrianna Kezar

University of Southern California

Kevin Kinser

SUNY – Albany

Dina Maramba

Binghamton University

Robert Palmer

Binghamton University

Barbara Tobolowsky

University of Texas at Arlington

Susan Twombly

University of Kansas

Marybeth Walpole

Rowan University

Rachelle Winkle-Wagner

University of Nebraska – Lincoln

CONTENTS

Executive Summary

Audience and Approach

Summary of Findings

Implications

Foreword

Introduction

Terminology

Problem Statement

Purpose of the Monograph

Research Questions

Importance of the Topic

Research Approach

Theoretical Consideration

Organization of This Monograph

Alcohol-Related Behavioral Effects

Context

Research Design and Terminology

Criticisms of the Terminology

Rates and Statistics

Binge Drinking

Heavy Episodic Drinking (HED)

Problem Drinking, Alcoholism, and Alcohol Dependence

Weekly and Monthly Consumption

Special Occasion/High-Risk Drinking

Predisposition to Join, Previous Alcohol Experience, and Other Controls

The New Member Education Period

Socialization and Organizational Effects

Consumption at Fraternity Parties

Fraternity and Sorority Houses

Other Comparisons Within Groups

Comparisons to Athletes

Comparisons to Other Campus-Based Organizations

Consumption Patterns During and After College

Summary of Findings

Other Behavioral Effects

Hazing

Hazing Research in Journal Articles

Hazing Research in Other Publications

Sex-Related Research: Instruments, Terminology, and Criticism

Rape Myths, Beliefs, and Bystander Intervention

Sexual Aggression and Coercion

Sorority as At-Risk Group for Sexual Assault

Comparing Fraternity Members to Athletes

Other Drug Use

Smoking, Other Tobacco, and

Salvia divinorum

Ecstasy, Marijuana, and Opioid Analgesics

Illegal Use of Stimulant Drugs

Academic Dishonesty

Fake ID Use and Gambling

Other Research

Summary of Findings

Psychosocial Effects

Attitudes and Values Toward Self

Fraternity Involvement and Identity Formation

Sorority Involvement and Identity Formation

Sorority Body Image and Disordered Eating

Similarities in Identity Formation and Body Image

Depression, Self-Esteem, and Sense of Belonging

Moral Development and Ethical Issues

Attitudes Toward Others

Understanding Others and Diverse Experiences

Summary of Findings

Educational Effects

Research Methods and Terminology

Critical Thinking and Reasoning Skills

Academic Performance, Persistence, and Graduation

Other Educational Effects

Within-Group Comparison

Summary of Findings

Recommendations for Practice and Research

Recommendations for Campus Professionals and Policy Makers

Recommendations for Alumni and Volunteers

Recommendations for Inter/National Professionals

Recommendations for Fraternity and Sorority Collegiate Members

Recommendations for Future Research

Recommendations for Refining Research

Conclusion

References

Advert

Name Index

Subject Index

About the Authors

About the ASHE Higher Education Report Series

Call for Proposals

List of Tables

TABLE 1

TABLE 2

List of Illustrations

FIGURE 1 Percentage of Incoming Freshmen Intending to Join a Fraternity or a Sorority (2000–2012)

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter

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Executive Summary

Nearly two decades have passed since Kuh, Pascarella, and Wechsler (1996) published the “The Questionable Value of Fraternities.” The researchers showed fraternity and sorority members, and particularly resident members, were at the center of a problematic alcohol culture on campus. Advocates countered that findings did not represent the collective fraternal movement and that alcohol abuse was salient across student culture in general. Unfortunately, efforts to collect data to evidence such defensive statements had not been undertaken. Subsequent research on the legal risk of fraternal organizations, popular books, and highly trafficked websites further highlighted other detrimental links to involvement. Yet, trend data from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI, 2013) show a persistent interest among incoming freshmen in joining.

Students seek a sense of belonging on campus, and fraternities and sororities offer established groups to meet that need (Astin, 1993a). Although research efforts since 1996 have broadened our understanding of involvement, the majority of published studies have focused on detrimental behaviors. More recently, researchers studying membership correlates have found positive links between involvement and institutional engagement, psychosocial development, and academic achievement. The central aim of this monograph was to consider comprehensive involvement outcomes based on a critical review of published research. Findings revealed rigorous, yet disproportionate, investigations focusing on negative aspects of membership as well as a number of studies evaluating broader outcomes showing positive effects.

Audience and Approach

Fraternities and sororities have multiple stakeholders—including alumni, staff, volunteers, inter/national central offices, student affairs representatives, administrators, and collegiate members—who will find an outcome summary and analysis helpful for education and programming. For example, research on alcohol behaviors using a variety of instruments and in various settings suggests that consumption patterns are established early in college and remain relatively unchanged in subsequent years. This finding pinpoints a problematic time that allows stakeholders to target context-based intervention efforts. Scholars, advocates, and critics of involvement will also find this volume beneficial as a single reference for building on student involvement research and directing recommendations for future study. For example, few researchers disaggregate forms of extracurricular involvement to understand differences related to organization type, student role, or involvement frequency.

The research approach guiding this monograph was modeled after Pascarella and Terenzini's (2005) strategy of asking critical questions of evidence as means of consolidating and interpreting the research. For the purposes of this study, the following research questions were posed: (a) What evidence is there that fraternity or sorority involvement influences student outcomes? (b) To what extent does the influence of fraternity or sorority involvement depend on the type of student involved? (c) To what extent does the influence of fraternity or sorority involvement extend throughout and beyond the college years?

Summary of Findings

Alcohol-related research has been the most prevalent and methodologically sound area of empirical study on fraternity and sorority involvement, informed by multiyear, multi-institution datasets. Findings revealed that regardless of the measure, fraternity members drank in greater quantities and more frequently than all other students or groups with some exceptions. Further, college students drank and binged more often in fraternity and sorority houses than other locations. Park, Sher, and Krull (2008) found that these behaviors decreased as members transitioned out (e.g., drop out, transfer, or graduate), though the researchers suggested this decrease may be more related to a leveling effect following the initial joining phase.

Research linking other detrimental aspects of involvement has not been as clear. There has been a disconnection between formal definitions of hazing and what students view as harmless initiation rites or team-building activities. Surprisingly, very few researchers have investigated hazing; however, consistent with nearly all other studies, Allan and Madden (2008) found more students articulated positive rather than negative aspects of hazing behaviors. Sex-related issues within the population also have been prevalent research topics. Rape myth research generally has shown fraternity members to hold false beliefs about relationships and consent, yet when variables such as masculine culture and peer norms have been controlled, sexual aggression measures diminish significantly. Further, empirical research since 1996 has not supported the tacit theory that sorority membership increases the risk for sexual assault. Mohler-Kuo, Dowdall, Koss, and Wechsler (2004), using multiple years of data, evidenced a statistical connection between membership and assault, though the strongest predictor by far was alcohol consumption. Lastly, usage trends for most drugs showed fraternity members used in greater rates than nonmembers, yet when researchers examined intervening variables, many of the effects lessened.

Findings related to psychosocial effects of fraternity or sorority involvement are difficult to isolate. While both men and women navigate self-concept and body image issues, they do so in different ways. For men, development of masculinity and exploration of sexual orientation is highly salient (Hesp & Brooks, 2009). For women, identity development took the form of competition among each other for esteem, perfectionism, and self-objectification. A considerable strand of research about women took place in the context of sexual assault and women's view of themselves as victims or complicit participants.

Research also has not offered conclusive evidence about the educational effects of involvement. Although some researchers have found negative effects of fraternity membership on measures of critical thinking (particularly during the first year), others have shown detrimental effects diminished to nonsignificance by the end of the fourth year of college (Pascarella, Flowers, & Whitt, 2001). Pike (2003) showed that senior members scored significantly higher than their nonaffiliated peers on measures of academic and personal development. These trends suggest that negative impacts of membership are likely linked with entering characteristics or first-year experiences.

This monograph closes with a review of various distinctions each group may hold; notably, many groups can be classified into multiple categories. While for research purposes it may be helpful to categorize, too much differentiation can be problematic for comparisons. With today's campus communities hosting a variety of student organizations, a level of involvement scale specifically linked to fraternity/sorority membership could be a more precise indicator of organizational engagement. This does not permit differentiation by group characteristic, but would enable researchers and interested stakeholders to understand levels of student engagement with the organization more precisely as a measure of its influence on other outcomes.

Implications

It is difficult to evaluate holistically the value of fraternities and sororities based upon present research. The most conclusive finding was the need for a clearer understanding of involvement, particularly given the varied experiences students may have depending on type of organization and the time in which they are involved. For example, an underexamined area of emerging research (aside from Severtis & Christie-Mizell, 2007) was the role of fraternities and sororities outside of the two major organizational councils, the National Interfraternity Council (NIC) or the National Panhellenic Council (NPC).

While each organization is different, so too is the difference between the first year of participation and subsequent years. At present, large, national datasets do not allow researchers to disaggregate members by organizational council, size of chapter, or member engagement, thus limiting the ability to grasp the nuanced effects of membership on a variety of outcomes. Most researchers gathering their own data, qualitative or quantitative, have also failed to consider involvement as a multifaceted experience. As a result, any generalization about outcomes based on large datasets, or transferability based on smaller samples, whether negatively or positively associated with membership, should be suspect.

Findings from this review point to a need for more direct research on psychosocial and educational outcomes throughout college and beyond graduation. Though Astin (1993a) as well as Pascarella and Terenzini's (2005) research and analyses have demonstrated positive links between membership, engagement, and retention, few researchers have followed to further evidence this relationship. Another particularly overlooked area in the research has been between-group examinations. Aside from comparing members to nonaffiliated students, very few researchers made comparisons to other student groups. Further, the current body of research on the effects of membership overwhelmingly explores the impact of membership from the perspective of White majority members. If a better understanding of the value of fraternities and sororities is to be created, these and other gaps in the research need to be addressed.

Foreword

Recently, the President of the University of Alabama determined that Greek-letter sororities on their campus were engaging in racial discrimination. Sororities were told to change their current practices, but many admitted that nothing is likely to change. In other recent headlines, a fraternity was kicked off campus at San Francisco State for hazing activities that led to the death of a freshman. At Montana State University, police recommended that criminal charges be brought against members of two fraternities for sexual assault against women. These are just a few of the headlines from the past month related to the negative outcomes associated with Greek-letter organizations at U.S. colleges and universities. Indeed, so many media stories exist about the negative effects of participating in fraternities and sororities that one should ask why they continue to exist on college and university campuses. The question has been asked numerous times over the years by numerous sources. In 1996, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an op-ed entitled “The Questionable Value of Fraternities” that relied heavily on existing research on the outcomes of fraternities and sororities, that dared to ask this question.

This op-ed was different than many others because its authors were such high-powered researchers in the field of higher education (George Kuh, Ernest Pascarella, and Henry Wechsler) and their critique of Greek-letter organizations used up-to-date, widely cited research. Indeed, their critique of fraternities and sororities was damning and hard to ignore. Among other things, the 1996 op-ed piece suggested that norms of Greek-letter organizations were too deeply embedded in chapter cultural systems to permit change. Institutions, they noted, are afraid that coming down too hard on fraternities and sororities might lead to alumni withholding donations to the institution if real changes in the system were dictated at the university level. The authors suggested reform must begin with campus administrators partnering with institutional stakeholders, such as faculty, the general student body, student affairs staff, local fraternity leaders and members, and alumni, to set clear behavioral and educational expectations for achieving and maintaining recognition as a campus organization. Another suggestion involved barring students from joining fraternities and sororities at least until the end of their first year and that any member activity should be delayed until the second year. This suggestion could have an immediate economic impact on local chapters as well as inter/national organizations, which depend on revenue from housing contracts and member fees to be economically sustainable. These were the kinds of suggestions offered in that 1996 op-ed.

The question remains, what has happened at the institutional and organizational level with fraternities and sororities since that 1996 call to arms? The present monograph answers this important question. As predicted, faced with the negative press and negative research results to back up the concerns, fraternity and sorority professionals and their advocates defended Greek-letter organizations by critiquing the existing research and suggesting that the system should not be held accountable for its individual members (owing to the size and diversity of membership in a group). Some even offered the more defensive response that alcohol abuse is common to college students, not just among fraternity members. Others pointed to the research relating Greek-letter organizations to the benefits for individual student development or institutional engagement and retention efforts. In 1996, these findings used to support Greek-letter organizations were not without their own critiques and counterfindings (see, e.g., Pascarella, Whitt, Nora, & Edison, 1996; Wechsler, Kuh, & Davenport, 1996).

Research since 1996 has continued to explore the negative and positive outcomes associated with belonging to fraternities and sororities. The present monograph uses the 1996 op-ed as a starting point to gather together the current research to try and move beyond the negative press and popular accolades attributed to today's Greek-letter organizations to determine what it is that we really know about the outcomes of being involved in fraternities and sororities. The monograph serves as neither an advocate for closing down fraternities and sororities nor does it offer excuses or apologies for the downsides of being a member. It presents the good and the bad, the pros and the cons, and offers a start to helping both advocates and critics figure out where we stand so that they can determine where we should go from here with regard to today's fraternities and sororities. It is a well-crafted monograph that explores the current state of research on the effects of Greek-letter membership, examining the nuances of different types of organizations at different institutional types. The questions addressed in this monograph are as important today as they were a decade ago, especially as Greek-letter organizations continue to remain a part of many college campuses and their popularity with undergraduates continues relatively unabated. Making sense of the research literature on this topic remains an important charge—one that this current monograph has taken up admirably.