THE NAVY ACTIVITIES PREFERENCE BLANK AS A PREDICTOR OR REENLISTMENT
Abstract
The low retention rate of enlisted men remains a major problem to the Navy. The purpose of this research is to evaluate an interest test, the Navy Activities Preference Blank (NAPB), as a predictor of retention for use in selection and classification. Previous attempts to relate the NAPB to retention had used the original theoretically derived scales. The present study employed newly constructed empirical keys specifically designed to predict retention. Several new methods of using the original keys were also investigated. Retention information obtained from personnel records was used to classify samples of mechanical (N=1119) and electrical-electronic school graduates (N- 2914) into non-reenlistees or first-term reenlistees. Item-analyses contrasting these low- and high-criterion samples were used to construct two empirical keys, one for the mechanical and one for the electrical-electronic sample. In a further phase of the study, NAPB scales previously constructed through factor analyses were tried, using the General Classification Test (GCT) as a moderator variable. An attempt was also made to predict reenlistment through the analysis of the pattern of highest and lowest factorially-derived scores. When applied to cross-validation samples, the empirically derived keys did not predict retention. Both analyses involving the original scales similarly provided no usable prediction of retention. On the basis of these results, it was concluded that NAPB scales are not promising predictors of retention. Possible reasons for this lack of positive results were advanced and suggestions for further attempts to predict retention, using a different type of vocational interest test, were made.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0661822
Entities
People
- Idell Neumann
- Norman M. Abrahams
- William H. Githens