The integration and functioning of care-leavers in the Israel Defense Forces

Israeli Care-leavers must face many challenges in the years following their graduation from out of home settings, one of the most difficult being their recruitment into the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) for compulsory military service. This study aims to examine how out-of-home-care-leavers cope with integration into IDF frameworks and how they function during their service. Recruitment into and due completion of the compulsory military service are important resources for their assimilation in society, whereas non-recruitment and probelmatic service record might exact a price later in life. 

The study uses the emerging adulthood approach as a theoretical framework for the care-leavers’ developmental period, and the resilience theory as a base method of identifying predictive factors for adaptive functioning despite difficult starting conditions. The study is also based on literature that lists social support as a resilience-supporting factor. The objectives of this study are to examine recruitment rates among out-of-home-care-leavers, identify factors that predict which of the out-of-home-care-leavers will enlist in the military, which will adapt to their service and which will complete it, as well as how well they will function during the service and what they believe its contribution will be to the different areas of their lives.

The research hypotheses are: there will be a positive correlation between (a) enlistment for compulsory military service; (b) military service completion; (c) adaptation and functioning during the service; and (d) an evaluation of the service’s contribution to the youth’s personal resources (as assessed before the service), high school academic achievements, self esteem and optimism. Additionally, there will be a positive correlation with social support from family and friends, as assessed during military service..

  This study involves a longitudinal survey that followed the care-leavers throughout their transition into independent life, assessing them at several points in time. The youths were assessed before leaving the boarding schools, and again a year later. The current study focused on a third assessment point, four years after boarding school graduation, shortly before and/or after the youths’ discharge from military service.  The study also relies on the data collected at the two previous assessment points.

The sample is comprised of alumni of all 19 of the Israeli Ministry of Welfare’s therapeutic residential schools, who had completed their stay at the schools in 2009, as well as alumni of seven youth villages under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. In the first stage of the study, self-report questionnaires were administered to 277 youths in the 12th grade in the presence of research assistants.  In the second stage, 236 out of the original 277 were reassessed approximately one year after leaving residential care and transitioning into independent life (an 85% return rate). In the third, current stage, N = 220, (79% return rate), data was collected via telephone interviews, wherein participants were administered structured questionnaires to measure each of the study’s variables.

The findings indicate that the total percentage of youths who had enlisted and completed any kind of service (full/partial/national) is 82%, and that 67% had completed their military service. At both assessment points, the youths’ self-reported ratings of their adaptation to their positions in the IDF and their social adaptation to military life were higher than their ratings of their adaptation to living away from home. At the third assessment point, the reported ratings for social adaptation and adaptation to military role, as well as the total adaptation index, were significantly higher than at the second assessment point. As to the matter of functioning in the military, nearly half the youths were court-martialed at least once during their service, just over 10% had records of absenteeism or desertion, and 10% spent time in military prison. However, most youths did go up in rank.

The findings concerning the youths’ perception of the military’s contribution to their lives show that out-of-home-care-leavers view their military service in a positive light (when compared to youths who are not out-of-home-care-leavers).

Optimism was found to have the best predictor of the nature of the youths’ military service. The links between optimism and social adaptation, adaptation to military position, general adaptation and perceived military service contribution were significant. A marginally significant link was found between optimism and functioning in the military. The current study has found self-image to be a significant predictor of social adaptation and a marginal predictor of general adaptation to military service. In addition to optimism, which is a personal variable, social support from the mother was found to be a significant predictor of general adaptation to military service and of the service’ contribution to the youths’ lives, as perceived by the youths. Support from the father, on the other hand, was not found to predict any enlistment characteristics. Social support from friends was also found to be a significant predictor of general adaptation, as well as of the type of service (full/partial/national/none).

In this study, I hypothesized that academic achievement would be a good predictor of success in the military. However, such findings were inconsistent and fairly weak, and were found to be mostly related to functioning in the military (measured by whether the youths had deserted or were court-martialed/incarcerated during their service).

The findings suggest that most out-of home-care-leavers do enlist with the IDF. In fact, the enlistment rates among care-leavers are higher than among other groups in the general population. It appears there is a consensus among residnetial settings  alumni that enlistment into compulsory military or national service is important for their futures. Enlistment is expected to contribute to their ability to integrate into civilian life. In this, Israeli care-leavers have an advantage over those in other countries that do not get the opportunity to take part in an integration process shared by all youths transitioning into adulthood.

To address the matter of functioning in the military, it appears that the youths have adapted and functioned well during their military service, despite the difficulties they had to face. However, the findings also indicate that alongside the fact that most youths went up in rank (which suggests positive functioning), they had also experienced difficulties. It is therefore recommended to continue to investigate ways of preventing this situation, where so many have trouble meeting the standards of military discipline and find themselves court-martialed and even sent to military prisons.

Regarding the matter of perceiving the service as a positive experience that contributes to the youths’ future, although the contribution was perceived as positive, the accomodation issue appears to be weighing on the youths. On the subject of education, it is important to consider military service as an opportunity to help these youths by assigning military resources to address educational needs within the military service period.

In general, the results of the study indicate a difficulty in predicting who will enlist, adapt and feel that military service is contributing to his or her life. Factors that predict functioning in the military are few, and most of the hypotheses concerning predictors of a successful military service were not supported by the findings. As aforesaid, this study is based on the resilience theory, as a means to identify predictors of adaptive functioning despite difficult starting conditions, and a large part of the predictors was selected accordingly (self-image, optimism and various types of social support). I did find a correlation between these factors and predictions of adaptation to military life and functioning in the military framework (the best predictors were optimism and social support), but the results of the study also indicate a difficulty in predicting who will enlist, adapt and feel that military service is contributing to his or her life, as most of the hypotheses were not supported by the findings. In light of this, it appears there is a need to examine the application of the resilience theory to this specific population, namely out-of-home-care leaver youths before or after enlistment, in a unique way, adapted to their particular circumstances.

It may be that the enlistment process itself is independent of each candidate’s personal traits, and the requirement to enlist is made of all graduates, regardless of their characteristics. It also seems that there is room to conduct further studies to check whether there are other predictors of enlistment and completion of service. It is possible that different variables that have not been assessed in the current study, such as motivation to contribute to the country and benefit from the service and the desire to attain an equal social status to other youths, will be found to be correlated with enlistment. In addition, it is worth checking whether the preparation to enlistment and military service programs that exist in the vast majority of boarding schools contribute to enlistment rates and the nature of service.

This study may advance our understanding of the care-leavers’ situation by finding predictors for their functioning in and integration into the military environment. However, it is clearly important to continue studying the factors that affect enlistment, functioning and adaptation to military service and to add to the existing literature on the subject. Future studies should explore the differences between those who had served in the military and those who had not. For this purpose, additional assessments should be performed at later points in the participants’ lives.

To conclude, military service is meaningful and important for youths in Israel, particularly for out-of-home-care-leavers. For this reason, it is important to take steps to guarantee that care-leavers are integrated into the military service and have a military service that contributes to their future. We should continue to study how care-leavers successfully integrate into military frameworks and what obstacles prevent others from doing so in order for the IDF to fulfill its role as a springboard to a normative life for these youths.          

Another reason for the importance of this study is the fact that it is yet another stage in Israel’s first longitudinal quantitative study of boarding school alumni and their military service, an issue never before addressed in research. This study contributes to the theoretical and empirical knowledge on emerging adulthood and at-risk youth resilience. Its practical contribution is the ability to identify the youths’ needs prior to their military service – while they are still in boarding schools – and during their military service – in the years after they leave residential care.