Research Catalog

Title

Recruiting older youths : insights from a new survey of army recruits / Bernard D. Rostker, Jacob Alex Klerman, Megan Zander-Cotugno.

Author

Rostker, Bernard.

Publication

Santa Monica : RAND, ©2014.

Supplementary Content

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR200/RR247/RAND_RR247.pdf

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Klerman, Jacob Alex.
• Zander-Cotugno, Megan.
• Rand Corporation.
• National Defense Research Institute (U.S.)
• United States. Department of Defense. Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Description

xvii, 66 pages : illustrations (some color); 28 cm

Summary

More than half of all U.S. Army recruits are choosing to join later in life instead of immediately after high school graduation. Older recruits tend to reenlist and receive promotions at greater rates than their younger peers. Among those surveyed, recruits who enlisted later were more concerned about the domestic job market and less concerned about external factors, such as opposition from family and friends. Since the advent of the all-volunteer force, little attention has been paid to high school graduates who do not enlist immediately after graduation, primarily those who seek employment in the private sector of the economy. However, over time, this group has made up a significant and increasing portion of total enlistments. However, since 2005, the majority of the Army's recruits has not joined directly out of high school but has instead made the decision to join at a later time. Why these recruits initially chose not to join when they had the opportunity after graduating from high school and why they changed their minds several years later and enlisted are the subjects of this report. Given the importance of older recruits to the Army, the authors examine what is known about these recruits, their performance during military service, and why they came to join the Army after first choosing another postsecondary path. The results of a survey of 5,000 Army recruits designed to answer this question are presented. Finally, the implications of the survey results are discussed, along with suggestions of ways to gain additional insights by tracking this survey cohort through their Army careers.

Subject

United States. Army > Recruiting, enlistment, etc

Note

• "National Defense Research Institute."
• "Prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense."
• "RR-247-OSD"--Page 4 of cover.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-66).

Funding (note)

• "The research described in this report was prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) ... under Contract W74V8H-06-C-0002"--Title page verso.

Contents

Introduction -- Who Are the Older Recruits and How Successful Are They in the Army? -- Why Do Older Youths Join the Military? -- Surveys of Army Enlistees and the American Youth Population -- What We Learned About Older Recruits: An Analysis of Survey Results -- Conclusions and Recommendations.

Call Number

JFF 17-576

ISBN

• 0833083902
• 9780833083906

LCCN

2014453586

OCLC

874223156

Author

Rostker, Bernard.

Title

Recruiting older youths : insights from a new survey of army recruits / Bernard D. Rostker, Jacob Alex Klerman, Megan Zander-Cotugno.

Imprint

Santa Monica : RAND, ©2014.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-66).

Funding

"The research described in this report was prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) ... under Contract W74V8H-06-C-0002"--Title page verso.

Connect to:

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR200/RR247/RAND_RR247.pdf

http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR247.html

Added Author

Klerman, Jacob Alex.

Zander-Cotugno, Megan.

Rand Corporation.

National Defense Research Institute (U.S.)

United States. Department of Defense. Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Research Call Number

JFF 17-576