Letter Report from the Committee on Youth Population and Military Recruitment (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Contents of Letter Report
Contents of Letter Report
Pages 1-6
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In addition to its major task, the committee has also been asked to write occasional, narrowly focused letter reports addressing specific issues of concern to the department that are within the committee's overall mandate. Last fall, the Office of Accession Policy requested a letter report that assesses the scientific quality of the popular literature characterizing various generations, with a particular focus on "millennials" - a term coined and described in detail by Neil Howe and William Strauss (2000)
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Indeed, everyday language is sprinkled with associated labels. It is commonplace to speak of the "founding fathers," the "Depression-era generation," and "boomers." Although such generalizations are the stuff of casual talk and common in the popular press, they are not the focused concepts and explanatory crevices of social science research, and they rarely stand up under the careful scrutiny of that research.
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It presents testable empirical claims that researchers can investigate using data drawn from multiple time periods and locales. The scholarly literature neither proposes nor provides evidence in support of the currently popular notions of generational differences regarding values, attitudes, and beliefs.
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An example is a recent DoD sponsored survey in which ~ 5- to 19-year-olds were labeled millennials and compared on the variable "teamwork" with 20- to 21-year-olds who were labeled generation X The focus of the survey was youth attitudes as portrayed in the popular literature and the implications for military recruiters and advertisers (Ho skies, 2001~.
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The committee does not believe that it is appropriate to give credence to popular portrayals of "generations" as a key explanatory concept for understanding youth attitudes and behaviors. More particularly, we question specific claims regarding characteristics of the current youth cohort, such as claims that this cohort differs dramatically on dimensions such as teamwork, achievement, modesty and good conduct.
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From page 6... ...
We hope this brief letter is helpful to you in evaluating DoD's recruitment strategies. Sincerely yours, Paul Sackett, Chair Committee on the Youth Population and Military Recruitment Attachment: Membership Roster 6
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