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.

摘要

在自愿服兵役的社会中，多种因素可能会影响入伍决定。过去的研究表明，少数人格和社会因素似乎可以预测军队的服役情况。但是，最近的定量遗传研究表明，入伍似乎是部分可遗传的，因此过去的研究可能会受到基因的混淆。为了评估遗传混杂的程度，目前的研究使用双胞胎的子样本（n= 1,232），摘自《青少年到成人健康国家纵向研究》的限制使用版本。一系列纵向双胞胎比较模型的结果控制了在家庭内部聚集的潜在影响源（即，共享的遗传和家庭因素），这些结果通常没有发现。但是，在校正了家庭混杂因素之后，在外向性测量和人格一般因素上得分较高的人更有可能入伍。尽管如此，总体结果表明，在这个研究领域中，家庭混杂应该是方法论上的关注，并且鼓励未来的工作采用遗传学上的方法论来评估军事征兵的预测因素。