Youth and the Military Service: 1980 National Longitudinal Survey Studies of Enlistment, Intentions to Serve, Reenlistment and Labor Market Experience of Veterans and Attriters
Abstract
Five studies of military manpower issues based on data from the second survey of a cohort of youth aged 14 to 21 on January 1, 1979 and part of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Force Experience (NLS), are provided. Studies focus on characteristics of participants in the armed forces, characteristics of enlistees, factors in enlistment decisions, reenlistment, and post-military labor market experiences. The socioeconomic status and quality of survey respondents in the armed forces were found to be similar to those of civilian youth employed full time. Inter-service comparisons, however, indicated disparities among the four services. Comparison of 1979 enlistees with those who enlisted in 1978 revealed declines in parental educational attainment, proportion completing high school, and mean Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT) scores. Long-run returns were cited as the chief reasons for enlisting with training opportunities being the most often cited long-run with training opportunities being the most often cited long-run return. The majority of youth felt serving in the military was definitely or probably a good thing, but few said they would try to enlist in the future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADA185410
Entities
People
- Choongsoo Kim
Organizations
- Ohio State University