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Title: Educational Levels, Aspirations and Expectations of Military and Civilian Males, Ages 18-22
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Fredland, John Eric Little, Roger D. |
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Educational Levels, Aspirations and Expectations of Military and Civilian Males, Ages 18-22 Armed Forces and Society 10,2 (Winter 1984): 211-228. Also: http://afs.sagepub.com/content/10/2/211.full.pdf+html Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces & Society Keyword(s): All-Volunteer Force (AVF); Educational Attainment; Hispanics; Military Personnel; Military Service; Racial Differences; Work Attitudes Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Based on the 1979 data from the NLSY, this article examines differences between 18-22 year-old servicemen and males of the same cohort who have never served with respect to three dimensions of manpower quality: educational levels, aspirations, and expectations. Blacks, whites and Hispanics are considered separately. Blacks and whites are also disaggregated by branch of service in some analyses. Two purposes are served. First, information on these three dimensions provides insight into the quality of those who serve in comparison with those who do not. Educational level is the most often cited quality measure in the debate over the efficacy of the all-volunteer force. Second, educational aspirations and expectations are also a measure of quality but, in addition, are valuable in assessing the utility of postservice educational programs as a recruiting attraction. It was found that, among whites, the military group has less education than the civilian group; however, the military group contains more high school graduates. Further, when the samples are confined to those having 12 or fewer years of education, the military group averages more education. Finally, because the sample is truncated at age 22, and because military service is an alternative to more schooling, the finding of a greater mean educational level for the civilian group is not surprising. In short, if amount of education is taken as an index of intellectual ability, it is difficult to argue that the military attracts much lower-quality whites than the average. It is particularly difficult to argue that the quality of white servicemen is lower than average, when the civilian group excludes those who have gone on directly from high school to college and graduate school. The results for blacks and Hispanics are much clearer. Blacks and Hispanics who enlist are (as of 1979) clearly superior to the average of their age group, when educational level is the criterion of quality. The most interesting results of this study concern educational aspirations and expectations. It was found that whites, blacks, and Hispanics in the military desire, on average, significantly more years of schooling than their civilian counterparts. Also, the servicemen, on average, actually expect to complete more years of schooling. These results hold even when the civilian group includes those who have gone on directly from high school to college, and they prevail more dramatically when the college group is excluded. They also obtain in the context of a multivariate model. |
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Bibliography Citation
Fredland, John Eric and Roger D. Little. "Educational Levels, Aspirations and Expectations of Military and Civilian Males, Ages 18-22." Armed Forces and Society 10,2 (Winter 1984): 211-228.
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