Page No.310-319
M. Vinothkumar* & S. Subramanian**
St. Agnes Centre For Post-Graduation Research, Mangalore, Karnataka* & Bharathiar University,
Coimbatore**
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A steady decline in enlistment of youth in defence services poses a major challenge
leading to acute shortages of human resource requirements in the defence sector.
Identifying the major predictors of a youth’s intention to join the defence forces will
facilitate screening the right type of youth who possess the required life skills, attitudes
and beliefs, potentials, temperament, and other personality characteristics relevant for
discharging the duties and responsibilities of defence services. It was hypothesized that
career intention would be predicted by their social, psychological characteristics such
as Attitude towards Military and Self–Efficacy. Data was collected on Attitudes towards
Military, Self-Efficacy, Subjective Norms and Enlistment Intentions from 119 Higher
Secondary School students in Coimbatore district, TamilNadu. Factor analysis was
carried to find out the core dimensions of attitudes towards joining Military. Regression
analysis revealed that young adolescents’ attitude towards military and self-efficacy
significantly predicted their strong intention to enlist in the defence services. The results
showed that the following four core attitude dimensions such as “Self and Physical
Development”, “Evaluation of Working Conditions and Benefits”, “Perceived Risk”,
and “Team work and Patriotism” significantly predicted the intentions to enlist in the
defence services. Also, subjective norms and self-efficacy significantly contributes to
the enlistment intention.
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