Prevalence and predictors of discharge in United States Air Force Basic Military Training

The purpose of the current investigation was to determine the prospective p redictors of discharge in a population of individuals entering U.S. Air For ce Basic Military Training (BMT). Subjects were 32,144 consecutive individu als entering Air Force BMT. In the first week, subjects filled out a compre hensive lifestyle and behavioral assessment. Over time, a total of 1,999 su bjects (6.2%) dropped out of BMT for a variety of reasons, the most common being medical (33.6%), psychiatric (21.3%), legal (20%), and poor performan ce (13.1%). Overall, discharges by gender were equal, but the reasons for d ischarge varied by gender. Ethnicity predicted for medical, psychiatric, an d legal discharge. Results suggest that women and ethnic minorities are not biased in favor of discharge and that both lifestyle and psychosocial vari ables are consistent predictors of discharge. Future research could potenti ally yield other significant predictors of success versus discharge in the U.S. military.