Youth Attitude Tracking Study (YATS) in-Depth Interviews: A methodological Overview

摘要

The Youth Attitude Tracking Study (YATS) began in 1975 and has grown into a complex telephone survey of 16-24 year-old men and women with nationwide representation. The central concept measured by YATS is called propensity, which is the stated likelihood that a youth will enlist in the military or one of the military services in the next few years. Research has shown that propensity predicts actual enlistment, making the propensity estimate a closely monitored measure. For some years, propensity has stood at a historical level of about 30 percent of young male youth, but in 1992 and 1993, dropped by over 50 percent for African American youth, historically the group with the highest enlistment propensity. This trend and drops in propensity for other youth groups caused some concern among the military recruiting community.