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The present study examined career intentions in two samples—home-based or garrison ( N = 12,583 soldiers in 180 companies) and deployed and recently returned soldiers ( N = 4,551 in 50 companies). Proportionally, fewer deployed soldiers than home-based garrison soldiers intended to stay in reserve military service. Among deployed soldiers, those who reported having experienced combat trauma, having had wounded or killed someone, and having had a friend killed in combat were less likely to plan to continue military service; reservists more likely to continue military service had returned to the same civilian job after deployment. Among deployed and garrison soldiers, fewer financial difficulties were associated with higher likelihood of continuing reserve military service. Examples from the social constructionist perspective of reserve military service are used to elaborate on mechanisms in these associations.

This study examines reserve military service from a perspective of social construction—the ways in which the reservist’s conscious experiences are constructed to give meaning to military service. Content descriptions of conscious experiences of reserve military service are identified in past studies. Constructions fell into four broad categories: (1) complementary to life—reserve military service providing wanted satisfaction not otherwise achieved, material gain, or ideological commitment; (2) equitable arrangement—understood compensation for self-sacrifice; (3) discordant identity—requirements of military life blatantly or surreptitiously conflicting with established identity and civilian life; and (4) self-definition—reserve military service understood as an aspect of self-identity. Directions for integrating these constructions as a basis for future research are identified and discussed.

Research studies have shown an association between military service and later civic involvement, largely defined as political activities. The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study 2008 ( N = 95,650) was used to compare veteran and nonveteran students on community service activities and voting. Proportionately more nonveteran than veteran students reported community service (i.e., working with children both in educational and noneducational settings and fund-raising). Nonveteran students also were more likely to have participated in community service in last 12 months. The two groups did not differ in average hours spent on community service per month (16 hr). Veterans compared to nonveterans were far more likely to have registered to vote (78% vs. 59%) and to have voted (90% vs. 82%). When gender, age, race, and income were considered in comparisons, previous differences were not statistically different. Results are discussed relative to past proposals and research regarding veterans’ civic engagement.

This paper builds a case for examining suicide in the U.S. military relative to broad societal context, specifically, the unique experiences of birth cohorts relating to processes described by Durkheim’s theory of suicide. In more recent birth cohorts, suicide rates have increased among teenagers and young adults. In addition, suicide rates of age intervals at a given time period have been reliably predicted by the size of the birth cohort and the percentage of nonmarital births—supposed indicators of Durkheim’s diminished social integration and behavioral regulation. Consequences of these trends are likely more evident in the U.S. military due to having proportionally more individuals known to be at risk for suicide, that is, young males who are from nontraditional households. The all-volunteer force compared to draft force has fewer applicants to select, and proportionally more of applicants are accepted for military service. Consequently, more recruits having varied conditions now than before, perhaps including greater vulnerability to suicide, serve in the U.S. military. These points are further elaborated with supporting evidence, concluding with a call for new directions in suicide research, practice, and policy.

Purpose – Study samples, having responded to similar survey content, allowed examination of suicide risk factors for deployed soldiers relative to nondeployed or home station soldiers. Specific research questions addressed by this study are: First, what is the prevalence of suicidal behaviors among Army National Guard (ARNG) soldiers – deployed or not, and how do these rates compare with known US national and international rates? Second, what are stressful life events associated with suicidal risk? How do these compare between deployed and nondeployed soldiers? Third, what specifically about combat exposure makes soldiers at risk for suicide? And fourth, is there any evidence of stress-buffering effect between risk factors and suicidal behaviors? The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Three data sources were used. First, the responding sample for the Unit Risk Inventory consisted of 180 company-sized units with a total of 12,567 responding soldiers. Second, the responding sample for the Unit Risk Inventory-Reintegration consisted of 50 company-sized units with a total of 4,567 soldiers. The third data source was all ARNG suicides for calendar years 2007 through 2012. For each calendar year, a random sample of 1,000 ARNG soldiers was drawn to represent nonsuicides. This resulted in a study sample size of 6,523, including the 523 suicides for the years 2007 through 2012 plus 1,000 nonsuicide cases for each calendar year. Findings – Prevalence of suicidal behaviors among soldiers was higher (for thoughts, plans, and attempts, respectively, 4-6, 1.3-2.2, and 0.7-0.08 percent) than among civilian populations (respectively, 2.6, 0.7, and 0.4 percent). Risk was highest among home station than deployed soldiers. Stressful life events associated with suicide risk included personal feelings of loneliness, anger, and frustration, followed by interpersonal behavioral problems, such as aggressive behavior toward a significant other and having committed a crime. Also evident are the beneficial effects (as a main effect and buffering effect) of feelings of cohesiveness, quality leaderships, and job satisfaction on suicidal behaviors. Research limitations/implications – Findings here were consistent with the stressor-strain hypothesis. Stressful life events were associated with suicide risk, especially, personal feelings of loneliness, anger, and frustration, followed by interpersonal behavioral problems, such as aggressive behavior toward a significant other and having committed a crime. Evident, too, were the beneficial effects of feelings of cohesiveness, quality leaderships, and job satisfaction on suicidal behaviors. Soldiers reporting these events were less likely to report suicidal behaviors and social support lessened the cumulative effect of risk factors on suicidal behaviors. Given these findings, it seems that suicide risk in the military is not uniquely different from that observed in civilian populations. The higher prevalence of suicides in the military likely has to do with proportionally more individuals who have historically shown to be at risk for suicide, namely, young males. Practical implications – Strong association of individual-level attributes with suicidal behaviors, such as age, gender, and race, suggest individual-level vulnerability to suicidal behaviors. This expectation is consistent with the stress/suicide vulnerability theory (Bryan, 2014; Nock et al., 2013). Such vulnerabilities may include negative affectivity (one of the Big Five personality dimensions) and early childhood trauma to suicidal behaviors (Griffith, 2012a, 2014). Social implications – Suicide, related constructs, and their underlying processes need to be further examined in future research. Their understanding would be useful in screening individuals most at risk for suicidal behaviors, with referral and treatment, if needed. Practically, such vulnerabilities in relation to what specific experiences could be determined, potentially describing which individuals are suited best to adapt to which environments. Originality/value – There has been much research on the increased suicides in the military, and to date, studies have focussed primarily on traumatic events, such as, deployments and combat exposure associated with suicidal behaviors. Yet, studies have almost exclusively examined the combat-suicide connection without reference to suicide risk factors among nondeployed or home station soldiers. This study fills this gap by examining survey responses to standardized questionnaires administered to ARNG soldiers during calendar year 2010 – one sample of deployed units either to Iraq or to Afghanistan and another sample of nondeployed or home station units.

Suicides in the US military were observed rising in 2004, most notably in the Army and Marine Corps, and particularly, in the Army National Guard (ARNG). Alarmed, Army leaders and researchers have offered various explanations and prescriptions, often lacking any evidence. In the present study, three data sets were used to examine evidence for various perspectives on suicide—dispositional risk, social cognitive, stressor-strain, and social cultural/institutional, each having different emphases on relevant explanatory variables and underlying mechanisms of suicide. Primary risk factors associated with having committed suicide among the 2007–2010 ARNG suicide cases were age (young), gender (male), and race (white), supporting the dispositional risk perspective on suicide. Some evidence supported the stressor-strain perspective in that postdeployment loss of a significant other and a major life change showed statistically significant, yet weaker associations with increased suicide intentions. Implications of results are discussed for future research and preventive strategies.

The topic of reserve military service began with the citizen-soldier who performs military duties periodically, fending off community threats. Now, the reservist routinely performs full-time military service in support of national security operations. Evident in this shift are matters of importance, such as the preparedness of the reserve force, staffing the reserve force in its new role, the demographic and social representative-ness of the force, and so forth. Authors from different countries examine these and other issues concerning their reserve forces. Common content and themes in the articles are briefly described.

Identities of reservists, primarily those of the U.S. military, are examined in the context of identity theory. In the current study, previously acknowledged identities of reservists are reliably measured and are shown to have construct validity. Scales were constructed from items on a previous survey of National Guard members ( N = 1,256). Survey data were then used to establish scale reliability, both exploratory factor analysis and internal reliability. Scales had construct validity: Scale scores supported hypotheses derived from identity theory concerning relationships among identities, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. The importance of reserve identities to recruitment, retention, and readiness, including adaptability to deployment stressors is discussed. Identities also have implications for the broader issue of civilian−military relations.

Drawing on social identity theory, the present article examines the extent to which soldier identification with the small unit is related to outcomes having increased importance to reserve military service. Measures of social identity have stronger associations with unit membership, whereas measures of personal identity do not. Soldiers’ reports of positive experiences when first entering the unit are more strongly and positively related to measures of social identity than to measures of personal identity. Measures of social identity show positive relationships with group-relevant outcomes, such as commitment to the unit and perceived readiness of the unit and fellow soldiers. Measures of personal identity show positive relationships with individually relevant outcomes, such as reporting for duty for contractual reasons and letting their families down and perceived personal readiness for combat. Results imply improving specific small-unit relations and developing abstract beliefs to increase reservists’ perceived readiness and commitment to their part-time military service.

Two concepts, Moskos's institutional—occupational orientations and Meyer and Allen's organizational commitment, were used to develop several hypotheses concerning relationships of soldiers' stated reasons for joining and staying in reserve military service to their stated career intentions and to perceived unit readiness. Survey data were obtained from first-term, junior-ranking enlisted Army National Guard soldiers nationwide at three time periods. Time periods corresponded to different phases of the Iraq conflict— before, during, and after the initial invasion. The number of soldiers at each time period equaled about 7,000 to 8,500. Results suggest material incentives may increase recruitment and retention, yet at the same time, such incentives may not enhance readiness. Rather, incentives fostering normative and affective commitments, such as joining and staying for camaraderie and service to country, were related both to self-reported career intentions and perceived unit readiness.

A recent issue of Armed Forces and Society published an interchange among MacCoun, Wong, Kolditz, and others regarding the relation of cohesion to performance. The discussion was purposefully narrow in its scope, but other literature should be considered to properly frame the larger question of cohesion's function in military settings. Specifically, current and future discussions should acknowledge: (1) the primary function of cohesion as revealed in historical and observational accounts of soldiers in combat; (2) emergent similarities between social support and cohesion, which support the notion that cohesion acts as a moderator rather than a main effect of performance; and (3) findings from a recent meta-analysis that contradict those of Mullen and Cooper. Viewing cohesion's relation to performance as indirect rather than direct has very different and important implications for research, applications, and expected effects of cohesion on group performance.

The present study extended recent investigations of the motivations of American youth and active-duty soldiers to serve in the military. Unlike previous studies, this study employed a sample of reservists and examined their reasons for joining. Consistent with recent studies, institutionally-motivated soldiers were more likely to plan to remain in military service, would report for duty so they did not let their buddies and family down, and believed in the mission and service to the country. In contrast, materially-motivated soldiers were less likely to remain in reserve military service if deployed overseas, more likely to report for duty to meet contractual obligations and to avoid disciplinary actions, but less likely to report to serve the country. These factors have implications for the level of commitment and combat readiness of soldiers, in particular Army reservists, who are increasingly relied on for national defense strategy.

Doctrinally, the U.S. Army determines the readiness of company-sized and battalionsized units by assessing them in four areas: personnel, equipment on hand, equipment serviceability, and training to meet mission-essential tasks. Surprisingly, these assessments do not include factors identified in surveys, personal interviews, and observational accounts of soldiers regarding what prepares them for combat and contributes to their combat effectiveness. Among the more prominent of these factors are the quality of small (primary) group relationships and the competencies of unit leaders. The present study considers these factors in addition to doctrinal readiness assessments. Soldier perceptions combined with doctrinal assessments (1) more readily differentiated the readiness of units; (2) were associated with independently derived soldier perceptions of fellow soldiers, leaders, and equipment being prepared for combat operations; and (3) implied interventions to improve specific unit activities.

Educational research has identified effective schools in terms of characteristics associated with high student achievement, and conversely, schools lacking these characteristics are often conceived as ineffective schools. In this article, I propose that organizational stress responses create the conditions that make schools effective or ineffective. In other words, low achievement does not make schools ineffective but rather organizational behavior associated with stress creates and perpetuates school ineffectiveness, including low achievement. Drawing on the threat-rigidity thesis and open systems theory, hypotheses regarding how groups and organizations respond to stress were tested using demographic and achievement data for students attending elementary schools, in addition to survey data obtained from students (N= 18,189), principals (N= 75), and parents (N= 13,768). Using cluster analysis, schools were grouped and described in terms of the school’s stress level (student populations requiring more resources for learning), school adaptations to stress (emphases on varied school internal processes), and school output (student achievement). To lessen input from the external environment, schools experiencing more stress had less permeable bound- aries, as indicated by parent reports of less school involvement and less positive school climate. Schools experiencing more stress also had more internal disruption, as indicated by less consensus among parents and students regarding school internal processes and by more principal changes. However, in such schools, there was little evidence of more control over school internal processes in terms of principals’ self-reported behavior and student and parent perceptions of school order and discipline, and teacher support of learning. Results call for a better understanding of school ineffectiveness in terms of organizational adaptations to stress and points at which to intervene for more effective school adaptation and functioning.

Organizational psychology has identified four recurrent organizational models (rational goal, open systems, human relations, and internal processes), each placing different emphases on internal and external organizational processes. Using a sample of 122 elementary schools in a large suburban school district located outside a metropolitan area, the present study examined the relation of school emphases on internal and external processes to school effectiveness and efficiency. Consistent with hypotheses, inefficient schools (lower-than-average student achievement test scores, adjusted by the percentage of students enrolled in the free and reduced-price meal program and per-pupil expenditures) were identified by the human relations model or as inward-directed with emphasis on the quality of student-school staff interpersonal relationships, by higher levels of student enjoyment, and by smaller student enrollments and smaller student-faculty ratios. Contrary to expectation, results showed that effective schools (higher-than-average student achievement test scores) were best described in terms of the rational goal model or as outward-directed, with emphasis on involving and empowering parents and on internal structure, control, and inflexibility (i.e., more school order and discipline). Results are discussed in terms of the broader organizational literature, specifically, competing organizational value orientations, effects of organizational structure and member characteristics on organizational process orientation, and the use of organizational process orientation as means to achieve organizational effectiveness and efficiency.

The present study employed a sample of 25,087 students enrolled in 117 elementary schools to test whether student perceptions obtained in a general survey of school learning and social environment conformed to the dimensions of Stockard and Mayberry's (1992) conceptual framework for school climate, and whether data could be summarized as grouped (school) or non-grouped (individual) data. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the proposed framework adequately fits student perceptions of school climate. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses showed between-school differences. Although school membership accounted for a small amount of variance in school climate measures, school climate means showed relatively high reliability. School climate dimensions most immediate to the student (Action-Instrumental support and Action-Expressive support) showed the strongest relations to both student self-reported academic performance and student satisfaction, and these relations were generally the same across the schools. As predicted, expressive support as opposed to instrumental support was more beneficial (in terms of self-reported academic performance) to students in schools having proportionally more socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Implications of results for educational research and educational practice regarding school climate are discussed.

In the mid-1970s, the Total Force policy shifted the active components' combat support and service support to the reserve components. This policy made it necessary to mobilize and deploy reserve component forces in the event of a large-scale war. During the Persian Gulf War, 228,000 reservists were called up, of which 139,207 were army reservists. The war, then, provided a test of the Total Force policy: Were the army reserve components ready for immediate mobilization and deployment in support of combat missions? The present study obtained survey responses from panels of deployed (N=259) and nondeployed (N=576) army reserve junior-ranking enlisted soldiers, before and after Operation Desert Storm. Perceptions of equipment and unit leadership preparation showed significant moderate and positive relationships to soldier perceptions that he(she) and the unit were prepared to fight. Favorable spouse and employer attitudes toward reserve service (as reported by the soldier) were significantly and positively related to the soldier's stated intent to stay in the army reserve, and negatively related to problems caused by extended mobilization and deployment periods. Soldier perceptions of how well their unit leadership was prepared and how well weekend drill prepared them for war were significantly and positively related to reporting for mobilization and staying in the army reserve. In contrast, both before and after Desert Storm, large percentages of deployed and nondeployed soldiers reported problems in unit leadership, preparation in individual job and common soldier skills, and weekend drill personnel utilization.

The Army Reserve loses approximately 30 percent of its personnel annually. Most of these losses are junior enlisted who do not complete their initial service obligation. The purpose of this study was to develop and test several hypotheses regarding why junior enlisted leave the Army Reserve before the end of their current obligations. Three general models were tested: demographic-pecuniary; unit activities (e.g., unit leadership, training, and administration); and family and civilian employment conflicts with Army Reserve duties in combination with unit activities. Findings support the Army Reserve continuing to offer both pecuniary incentives for joining and remaining in the Army Reserve (i.e., enlistment bonuses and educational benefits) and unit activities that promote feelings of self-worth (e.g., belonging and importance to the unit through recognition and awards) and self-development (through training in military job and general soldiers' skills)