| To stay within budget constraints, the U.S. Army has reduced the level of tuition assistance offered to soldiers. Declining reenlistments in the Army may be attributable in part to the reduced level of TA benefits available to enlistees. The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to compare a soldier's willingness to reenlist in the U.S. Army based on a set of six hypothetical scenarios regarding existing TA reimbursement levels. The hypothetical scenarios were expressed as follows: 100% increase, 50% increase, no change, 50% decrease, 75% decrease, or elimination of the program. The willingness to reenlist, as reported by participants on a 5-point Likert-type scale, was compared for each of the six scenarios. Control variables included age, educational level, deployment history, gender, and previous reenlistment history. Survey responses were obtained from 117 enlisted soldiers stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. All participants were currently using, or showed an interest in using, the TA program of the U.S. Army. Data were collected with a pencil and paper survey. A one-way repeated-measures ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The results of the multivariate test were significant, Wilks' lambda = 0.31, F(5, 111) = 50.64, p < .001, indicating a significant difference between at least one pair of the hypothetical scenarios. The value of partial eta squared was 0.70, indicating a very large effect size. Pairwise comparisons were then conducted to determine which sets of scores were significantly different from each other. All pairwise differences were significant, with p values ranging from .005 to less than .001. A visual inspection of the mean scores showed that with one exception, each consecutive decrease in the monetary value of the scenario corresponded with a lower mean score for intent to reenlist. This study shows there is a strong relationship between an enlisted Army Soldier's intent to reenlist when increases/decreases to TA reimbursement levels occur. |
