Impact of Occupational Specialty and Soldier Gender on First Enlisted Attrition

摘要

The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of individual and organizational variables on first-tour soldier attrition. All female recruits and a 10% sample of noncombat male recruits entering the Army in FY76 were studied. Multidimensional chi-square analyses were utilized for the individual analyses and analysis of variance was used to compare Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) attrition rates. Results showed major differences by gender, type of attrition, attrition, traditionality of MOS, education, and race. Females had a higher attrition rate overall. Also, females had higher attrition due to family-related reasons, and males had higher attrition due to adverse causes. Females in nontraditional MOSs had higher attrition than females in traditional MOSs. High school graduation was the single best predictor of first-tour success. Blacks had lower attrition than whites in the noncombat MOSs, with female blacks having the lowest attrition rate.