Date of Award
2016
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Honors Thesis
Department
Sociology
First Advisor
Katherine Novak
Abstract
Self-esteem on its own has been studied extensively, including as part of a study examining the effects of sorority recruitment on the self-esteem of the female participants (Chapman, Hirt, and Spruill, 2008). However, there is relatively little research on men’s self-esteem and no studies examining the potential impact of the fraternity recruitment process on students’ self-esteem. The present study examined this through a longitudinal study utilizing two surveys. The initial survey was completed the day before the fraternity recruitment process began to establish a baseline for 155 participants. The follow-up survey received a total of 99 responses from the original 155 participants. I hypothesized that a positive recruitment outcome (e.g., completing the recruitment process and receiving a bid from a fraternity) would increase students’ self-esteem and positively affect perceptions of fraternity life and perceptions of fraternity recruitment compared to a negative recruitment outcome (e.g., not completing the recruitment process or not receiving a bid). Results showed no significant changes in self-esteem and some significant, positive changes in perceptions of fraternity life and perceptions of fraternity recruitment.
Recommended Citation
Ladd, Kendall, "The Relationship between Fraternity Recruitment Experiences, Perceptions of Fraternity Life, and Self-Esteem" (2016). Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. 339.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses/339