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Military attitudes linked to plans for military service; based on national surveys, 1976-85; US.

Views about military matters among high school seniors from 1976 through 1982 are reported, from data obtained each year via classroom-administered closed-ended questionnaires completed by nationally representative samples (N = 16,662 to 18,924). The period from 1976 through 1982 was marked by many events that affected views about the military; accordingly, views appear complex, multidimensional, & capable of trending in several different directions. Expectations about enlistment declined during the late 1970s, but then more recently rose -- perhaps in direct response to shrinking civilian job opportunities. Views about working conditions in the military have shown some parallel shifts. Support for increased military spending dropped sharply in 1982, probably because of a perception that such an increase had just occurred; nevertheless, there was much enthusiasm for a program of increased educational benefits as an incentive to enlistment. Finally, concern about the risk of nuclear war has risen steadily, so that now substantial proportions of high school seniors expect their own lives to be ended by nuclear or biological disaster. 7 Tables. Modified AA.

A response tendency resulting from the length of a group-administered questionnaire instrument is described. Rs answering items that are included in large sets toward the end of a long questionnaire are more likely to give identical answers to most or all of the items, compared with those responding to items in smaller sets or in shorter questionnaires. While means & intercorrelations among items within the same set are affected by this "straight-line" response pattern, intercorrelations between items from different sets are much less affected by it. These investigations are based on comparisons between a long questionnaire, administered to 1,050 high school seniors in 9 high schools across the nation in 1978, & 5 shorter questionnaires administered to large national samples of high school seniors (total N = 18,924). The shorter questionnaires took approximately 45 minutes to complete, while the long questionnaire, a composite of the 5 shorter ones, took about 2 hours. Rs were each paid $5 to complete the long questionnaire. 2 Tables. Modified HA.

Includes bibliography (p. 245-248) and index. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Cover title. ; Bibliography: p. 115. ; Mode of access: Internet.

A report on an important racial difference in patterns of responding to Likert-type items: blacks are more likely than whites to use the extreme response categories, particularly the positive end of agree-disagree scales. This finding appears consistently in several large-scale nationally representative surveys of youth. Response style indexes (agreement, disagreement, acquiescence, & extreme responding) display ranges of individual differences & cross-time stabilities comparable to commonly used personality measures. Response styles show no consistent differences by sex, & no appreciable r with indicators of family SES or educational accomplishments & aspirations. For both races, agreement tendencies are stronger in the South, especially in nonmetropolitan areas; however, controlling for geography does little to reduce overall black-white differences. The findings reveal potential pitfalls in dealing with racial differences in survey & personality measures, & illustrate the need for great caution in reporting & interpreting such differences. 4 Tables, 18 References. AA.