Since the advent of the all-volunteer force in the 1970s, marriage, parenthood, and family life have become commonplace in the U.S. military among enlisted personnel and officers alike, and military spouses and children now outnumber service members by a ratio of 1.4 to 1. Reviewing data from the government and from academic and nonacademic…

Ryan Kelty, Meredith Kleykamp, and David Segal examine the effect of military service on the transition to adulthood. They highlight changes since World War II in the role of the military in the lives of young adults, focusing especially on how the move from a conscription to an all-volunteer military has changed the way military service affects…

Criticizes the preceding article by Michael Useem, which holds that compulsory military service in the U.S. has discriminated against the lower classes. Argues that the draft was more equitable than the current volunteer system, and that military service has been an important mobility channel for disadvantaged people. (Author/GC)

Data suggest that military service is viewed as a potential mobility channel by women and Blacks. Among high school seniors, White females perceived the opportunities for advancement to more responsible positions more positively than Black males. The most positive views of opportunities in the military are held by Black women. (Author/WI)

This report discusses the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Project in relation to trends in military propensity and the relationship between propensity and enlistment. The findings show that the military propensities of most young people are firmly formed by the end of high school, especially among men. Substantial majorities of…

Data in this survey indicate that high school seniors are more likely to expect or desire job training or education than they are to expect or desire to go into the military. More males expected to serve than wanted to, while more females wanted to serve than expected to. (Author/WI)

This study examines why some young men and women choose military service as well as what factors lead to successful enlisting among those who choose military service. It examines these questions using cross-sectional and longitudinal panel survey data from large nationwide samples of high school seniors, many of whom were followed into young…

The United States armed forces adopted "zero tolerance" policies concerning illicit drug use in 1980, and later developed policies to discourage tobacco and alcohol abuse. This paper examines drug use among young active-duty recruits both before and after enlistment, compared with non-military age-mates. It also documents historical shifts in such…