Updating Personnel Vetting and Security Clearance Guidelines for Future Generations

Abstract

The United States could face challenges in the near future with recruiting and retaining younger generations into both public trust positions and, specifically, sensitive positions that require more in-depth personnel vetting for the purposes of receiving a security clearance. For one, there is some evidence that millennial expectations for these positionsparticularly in the government sectormay differ from those of older age groups (Weinbaum, Girven, and Oberholtzer, 2016). Furthermore, several factors that traditionally and historically have been used to gauge an individuals eligibility for a security clearance (e.g., lifestyle choices and behaviors, personal and professional associations, financial circumstances) no longer may be feasible or applicable to younger age cohorts in the same manner they were applied to earlier generations. For example, single-sex relationships are legal today. So, too, is marijuana use in many states. Also, high levels of student debt are commonplace today.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2021
Accession Number
AD1124863

Entities

People

  • Emily Ellinger
  • Jamie Ryan
  • Marek N. Posard
  • Richard S. Girven

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Census
  • China
  • Covid-19
  • Data Analysis
  • Demographic Cohorts
  • Department Of Defense
  • Drug Abuse
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Generation Z
  • Governments
  • Health Services
  • Homosexuality
  • Human Behavior
  • Intelligence Community (United States)
  • Law
  • Money
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Social Media
  • Students
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Economics
  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.