The socioeconomic status of children and adolescents is closely related to mothers’ education, fathers’ education, average family income, and fathers’ occupational status.  Analysis of data collected for the Profile of American Youth study showed that mothers’ education approximated the effects of all four variables. [1]   Thus, the measure of recruit mothers’ education becomes important as an indicator of high-quality recruits.  Approximately 19 percent of recruit mothers earned a college degree or better; an additional 31 percent accrued some college credits.

CPS fathers were somewhat better educated than DoD fathers (Table 7.2).  The CPS fathers were more likely to have graduated from college than DoD fathers (30 percent for CPS and 22 percent for DoD), while DoD fathers were more likely to have less advanced educational credentials.  CPS mothers were also slightly better educated than their DoD counterparts, although the pattern of results is somewhat different.  Approximately 50 percent of DoD and CPS mothers attended college, whether or not they graduated.  However, a slightly greater percentage of CPS mothers graduated college than did DoD mothers (22 percent for CPS and 19 percent for DoD). 

Table 7.2.  Education of Parents of FY 1999 NPS Recruits, by Gender and Service, with Civilian Comparison Group (Percent at Each Education Level)
		Active Component								DoD Subtotal			Total
Highest Level of Education		Army		Navy		Marine Corps		Air Force		Active Duty		Guard/ Reserve	DoD	CPS
FATHERS
Less than High School Graduate	18.3		16.1		19.8		10.0		16.2		15.8		16.1	14.0
High School Graduate	33.8		33.0		32.7		32.1		33.0		30.6		32.4	31.0
Some College (No 4-Yr. Degree)	28.7		28.5		27.1		34.0		29.5		29.7		29.5	25.4
College Graduate*	19.2		22.3		22.3		23.9		21.3		24.0		22.0	29.7
MOTHERS
Less than High School Graduate	18.2		15.1		19.2		10.4		15.9		14.9		15.6	14.9
High School Graduate	35.9		35.3		35.8		34.3		35.4		32.5		34.7	35.3
Some College (No 4-Yr. Degree)	29.5		31.6		27.0		36.0		31.0		30.3		30.8	28.1
College Graduate*	16.5		18.0		18.0		19.3		17.8		22.4		18.9	21.7
* College graduate includes "greater than college graduate" level. Source:  Civilian data from Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey File, October 1998–September 1999.

  For both DoD and CPS parents, fathers were somewhat more educated than mothers.  This difference is reflected in the greater percentage of college graduates among fathers (22 percent for DoD and 29 percent for CPS) than among mothers (19 percent for DoD and 22 percent for CPS).  CPS fathers were also more likely to have education beyond high school than CPS mothers (55 percent for CPS fathers and 50 percent for CPS mothers); while a comparable difference was not found between DoD fathers and mothers. 

On the average, parents of Air Force accessions had more advanced educational credentials than parents in the other Services.  Both Air Force fathers and mothers were more likely to have at least a high school diploma (90 percent for both fathers and mothers) than the overall active duty average (84 percent for both fathers and mothers).  They were also more likely to have attended or graduated college (58 percent for fathers and 55 percent for mothers) than the active duty average (51 percent for fathers and 49 percent for mothers).  There were no other differences of note in parent education between Services.  Reserve Component parents were slightly more likely to have graduated college (24 percent for fathers and 22 percent for mothers) than their active duty counterparts (21 percent for fathers and 18 percent for mothers).

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