Should I stay or should I go? The collective effects of work, family, and mental health on military career intentions among active-duty and national guard and reserve soldiers

ABSTRACT

This study examined diverse predictors of military career intentions, specifically whether to stay in the military or leave, and differences based on duty status (i.e. active-duty versus National Guard or Reserve [NG/R] Service members). The combined perspectives of the personal choice model of military retention and family systems theory suggest that work factors (i.e. unit support, morale), family factors (i.e. work-family balance, romantic relationship quality), and mental health (i.e. depressive symptoms) simultaneously influence Service members’ military career intentions. Understanding how these factors together impact different dimensions of retention, namely, intentions to stay and intentions to leave, and whether they have a similar impact based on duty status are needed next steps. With data from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience (Army STARRS; N = 3,506 Soldiers), path models examined the direct and indirect paths through which these factors contributed to Soldiers’ intentions to remain and intentions to leave. Then, a multigroup mediation analysis explored possible model differences based on duty status. Unit support and work-family balance directly and indirectly contributed to intentions to remain and/or leave through romantic relationship quality, depressive symptoms, and morale. Few differences emerged between active-duty and NG/R Soldiers. In sum, work factors, family factors, and depressive symptoms worked together simultaneously to explain Soldiers’ military career intentions. Military leadership, at multiple levels, is encouraged to promote supportive work environments and work-family balance. Practitioners may reinforce mental health resources to promote retention.

KEYWORDS:

• Family systems
• military
• depression
• retention
• work-family balance

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Open Materials. The materials are openly accessible at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies/35197.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Restrictions apply to the availability of the study data, which were used under license for this study. Permissions to access data may be requested from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35197.v7.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2024.2376931

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture: Hatch project 1017588 (Mallory Lucier-Greer, Principal Investigator).