Designing and Planning a Comprehensive Investigation of Enlisted Attrition Across the First-Term Cycle

The U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences is engaged in abroad-based attrition research program incorporating both longitudinal and concurrent research designs. In the longitudinal design, several measures (e.g., surveys, test instruments, and performance criteria) will be obtained from samples of the Fiscal Year 1999 accession cohort who will be tracked throughout the first- term life cycle. For the concurrent design, comparison data from various points along the first-term life cycle will be collected from earlier accession cohorts. This report outlines the overall sampling, data collection, and data analysis plans for the program.