From the Disinterested to the Joiners: American Youth Propensity to Enlist in the United States Military

Abstract

There is a growing awareness within the Department of Defense (DoD) and Congress that personnel issues are becoming the most daunting challenges for the U.S. military. The proclivity of American youth to join the military has steadily declined. This research focuses on the Post-Cold War era, a time of relative prosperity for the United States. Yet, the U.S. military has found itself increasingly deployed in support of peacekeeping, humanitarian relief?, and traditional military missions around the world. These increased deployments coupled with declining youth propensity to join the military appear to threaten the viability and quality of the future U.S. military. This research employs the annual Youth Attitude Tracking Survey (YATS) to investigate the motivations, sources, and influencers of youth proclivity to join the military.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 03, 1999
Accession Number
ADA370532

Entities

People

  • Cheryl A. Shumate

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Basic Training
  • Databases
  • Employment
  • Enlisted Personnel
  • Factor Analysis
  • Families (Human)
  • Human Behavior
  • Information Science
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Political Systems
  • Psychology
  • Regression Analysis
  • Students
  • Surveys
  • United States

Readers

  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Naval Personnel Management
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.