NSF - Meredith Kleykamp
Intellectual Merit
Sociologists have long been concerned with how people's lives are shaped by their encounters with major social institutions. However, 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. Have the social and economic consequences of military service in the U.S. changed along with transformations of the labor force, the family, educational institutions, and the military itself over the past half century? We focus 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. We will use data 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 will enable us 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, we will consider four sets of outcomes: 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. Furthermore, no previous research on veterans has made use of the longitudinal design of the CPS. The proposed project contributes to sociological theory and research in three ways. First, it extends life course research on the role of military service. Sociology has a rich tradition of considering the life course impact of military service (e.g., Glen Elder’s classic work), but it does not explicitly compare multiple cohorts or multiple periods. Do sociologists’ findings from earlier veterans apply to contemporary cohorts of veterans who have now spent a decade at war? Second, it elaborates research on how the transition to adulthood has changed over time. Previous scholars have argued that people become adults by taking a series of steps: leaving of school, getting a job, and getting married. Military service has typically been seen as a disruption of this sequence. However, life course pathways have become more diffuse among recent cohorts, with people following multiple paths to becoming adults. Is modern military service as disruptive to the life course as it once was? How have historical changes to major American social institutions altered the transition to adulthood over time? Third, it sheds light on the links between social institutions more broadly. Because the military is affected by and influences other social institutions, any changes in the relative costs and benefits of military service have implications for understanding changes in the family, the labor market, and educational institutions.
Broader Impacts
We know relatively little 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. If veterans are not successful in their civilian roles after their periods of service, America will likely continue to struggle to staff an all-volunteer force. Beyond all this, our project will provide graduate students with valuable hands-on research training opportunities.