ABSTRACT

In societies where military service is voluntary multiple factors are likely to affect the decision to enlist. Past research has produced evidence that a handful of personality and social factors seem to predict service in the military. However, recent quantitative genetic research has illustrated that enlistment in the military appears to be partially heritable and thus past research is potentially subject to genetic confounding. To assess the extent to which genetic confounding exists, the current study examined a wide range of individual-level factors using a subsample of twins (n = 1,232) from the restricted-use version of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The results of a series of longitudinal twin comparison models, which control for the latent sources of influence that cluster within families (i.e., shared genetic and family factors), illustrated generally null findings. However, individuals with higher scores on measures of extraversion and the general factor of personality were more likely to enlist in the military, after correction for familial confounding. Nonetheless, the overall results suggest that familial confounding should be a methodological concern in this area of research, and future work is encouraged to employ genetically informed methodologies in assessments of predictors of military enlistment.

 抽象的

在自愿服兵役的社会中，多种因素可能会影响入伍的决定。过去的研究已经证明，一些性格和社会因素似乎可以预测参军。然而，最近的定量遗传学研究表明，入伍似乎是部分遗传的，因此过去的研究可能会受到遗传混杂的影响。为了评估遗传混杂存在的程度，当前的研究使用来自国家青少年至成人健康纵向研究的限制使用版本的双胞胎子样本（ n = 1,232）检查了广泛的个体水平因素。一系列纵向双胞胎比较模型的结果控制了家庭内聚集的潜在影响源（即共享的遗传和家庭因素），结果显示通常无效的发现。然而，在校正家庭混杂因素后，外向性和一般人格因素得分较高的人更有可能参军。尽管如此，总体结果表明，家族混杂应该成为该研究领域的方法论问题，并且鼓励未来的工作采用遗传信息方法来评估入伍预测因素。