Collaborative Research: Military Service and the Life Course

《服兵役与人生历程》梅雷迪斯·克利坎普、约翰·R·沃伦、阿莱尔·麦克莱恩对服兵役相关因素的研究通常局限于特定的历史时期(如越战时期)或特定人群的经历(如第二次世界大战时期)。这样的设计排除了对主要社会机构的长期变化对退伍军人结局影响方式的分析。这个项目的重点是在过去半个世纪里，随着更广泛的制度变化重塑美国社会，服兵役和各种结果(即婚姻、就业、教育和收入)之间的关系是否以及如何发生了变化。数据来自1964-2012年当前人口调查(CPS)，将在两个方面得到显著改进(与现有的公共CPS数据文件相比)：第一，关键措施将随着时间的推移而统一。其次，退伍军人个人的记录将在他们参加CPS的整整16个月内纵向联系起来。这些独一无二的丰富数据使我们有可能解决两个具体的经验问题。首先，在过去的半个世纪里，退伍军人和非退伍军人之间的差异发生了怎样的变化？其次，在过去半个世纪的近几十年里，特定军事经历的相关性发生了怎样的变化，包括在战斗中服役和患有与服役相关的残疾？在这两组分析中，都考虑了四组结果：婚姻、教育、就业和收入。以前的研究没有直接考虑退伍军人在如此广泛的队列和时期内的结果变化，或者以足够大的样本单独考虑女性退伍军人或来自少数族裔群体的退伍军人的经历。更广泛的影响：人们对9/11事件后服兵役的社会和经济后果知之甚少，特别是与前几代人的经历相比。事实上，国会和政府继续对缺乏关于这个时代的退伍军人如何重新适应平民生活的研究表示关切(医学研究所，2010年)。此外，退伍军人长期以来一直是军队最好(或最差)的征兵人员。重要的是，退伍军人在服役结束后能够成功地发挥文职作用，以便为未来的全志愿部队提供工作人员。

"Military Service and the Life Course" Meredith Kleykamp, John R. Warren, Alair MacLean Research on the correlates of military service has typically focused narrowly on particular historical periods (e.g., the Vietnam era) or on the experiences of particular cohorts (e.g., the World War II generation). Such designs preclude analysis of the ways in which veterans' outcomes are influenced by longer-term changes to major social institutions. This project focuses on whether and how relationships between military service and a variety of outcomes (i.e., marriage, employment, education, and earnings) have changed as broader institutional changes have reshaped American society in the past half century. Data are from the 1964-2012 Current Population Surveys (CPS) that will be significantly enhanced in two ways (as compared to currently existing public CPS data files): First, key measures will be harmonized over time. Second, records for individual veterans will be linked longitudinally across the full 16 months of their participation in the CPS. These uniquely rich data make it possible to address two specific empirical questions. First, how have differences between veterans and non-veterans changed over the past half century? Second, how have the correlates of specific military experiences, including serving in combat and having a service-related disability, changed in recent decades across the past half century? In both sets of analyses, four sets of outcomes are considered: marriage, education, employment, and earnings. No previous research has directly considered changes in veterans' outcomes across such an extensive array of cohorts and periods, or with a large enough sample to separately consider the experiences of female veterans or of veterans from ethno-racial minority groups. Broader Impacts: Relatively little is known about the social and economic consequences of post-9/11 military service, especially as compared to the experiences of earlier generations. Indeed, Congress and the administration continue to express concern about the lack of research on how veterans of this era readjust to civilian life (Institute of Medicine 2010). In addition, veterans have long been the best (or worst) recruiters for the military. It is important that veterans are successful in their civilian roles after their periods of service in order to staff future all-volunteer forces.