Influences of high quality Army enlistments.

Abstract

This thesis investigated the relationship between the quality of soldiers and influences on their enlistment decision. Influences analyzed include economic benefits of enlisting, military advertising, and Army recruiters. Data were from the 1985 New Recruit Survey of active duty Army recruits. The analysis attempted to determine what differences, if any, there are in the influences on the enlistment decision of soldiers who score above the expected population mean on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) portion of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) , and the influences on those who score in the lower half of the AFQT. The results of principal components and discriminant analysis indicated that educational benefits such as the New GI Bill strongly influenced high quality soldiers. Advertising and recruiters were also important influences on the enlistment decision.