Socioeconomic
Status of Enlisted Accessions and Civilians
Socioeconomic Index Scores |
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Socioeconomic
index scores reflecting the education, income, and prestige associated
with individual occupations were computed from responses to DoD and
CPS surveys. We used a common scale, the TSEI,
[1]
to indicate occupation prestige for both fathers and mothers.
The TSEI scores
ranged from 10 to 81 for DoD fathers and from 7 to 81 for CPS fathers.
Figure 7.1 shows the distribution of TSEI scores for active duty,
Reserve Component, and CPS fathers. In addition, the figure shows
the Active and Reserve Component representation ratios for each of
the TSEI categories. For any range of TSEI scores, this number is
the ratio of the percentage of DoD fathers (either active duty or
Reserve Component) in the range to the percentage of CPS fathers in
the range. A representation ratio of greater than 1.0 for any TSEI
category indicates a greater proportion of DoD parents in the category,
compared to CPS parents, while a ratio of less than 1.0 indicates
fewer DoD parents in the category, compared to CPS parents. The magnitude
of the representation ratio indicates the extent to which the DoD
and CPS distributions differ.
Mothers TSEI scores ranged from 7 to 81 for both DoD and CPS mothers. As was the case with fathers, the TSEI distribution was similar for Active and Reserve Components. As shown in Figure 7.2, levels of TSEI below 65 were represented relatively equally among both Active and Reserve Component mothers, as indicated by a representation ratio that is fairly close to 1.0 (ranging from 0.8 to 1.2). The representation ratio varies considerably for levels of TSEI above 65, due to the small number of respondents in these categories. In this range, the average representation ratio was approximately 0.8. Consequently, although there was a slight tendency for DoD mothers to be underrepresented in the lowest and highest TSEI groups, the accessions reasonably reflect the entire range of the distribution of mothers TSEI scores. Since the Survey of Recruit Socioeconomic Backgrounds excludes officer accessions, it would be expected to understate the average status of DoD parents.
Although DoD fathers, and to a lesser extent DoD mothers, were underrepresented in high-status occupations, as measured by the TSEI scales, these occupations represent only a small portion of the overall TSEI distribution in the general population. Figure 7.3 shows the representation of DoD parents from each quartile of the general population. As the quartiles divide CPS parents into equal fourths with regard to TSEI, DoD parents would also be equally divided among the quartiles if they were represented equally at all levels of TSEI. Figure 7.3 shows that the highest quartile of the TSEI distribution was underrepresented among enlisted accessions. For fathers, the deficit in the fourth quartile was compensated for by an excess in the second quartile, while the first and third quartiles were relatively accurately represented. For mothers, the deviations from expected levels were small, and occurred in both the second and third quartiles. Mothers of Reserve Component accessions were evenly distributed across the four quartiles. These results give no indication that enlisted personnel are drawn primarily from the lowest social strata.
In summary, enlisted
accessions come from all socioeconomic levels. However, there is
a tendency for accessions to come from families in the lower three-quarters
of the status distribution. These differences are expressed in the
occupations of the parents of accessions, as well as discrepancies
in education and home ownership. No systematic differences were discovered
between active duty and Reserve Component accessions. Including officer
accessions in the analysis would be expected to increase the representation
of higher social strata among military accessions. [1] Hauser, R.M. and Warren, J.R. Socioeconomic Indexes for Occupations: A Review, Update, and Critique (Madison, WI: Center for Demography and Ecology, October 1996). |
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