A correlational study investigating the relationship between preretirement anxiety and military role identity among separating and retiring members of the United States Army

This study addresses service member (SM) anxiety levels as a function of role identity and the preretirement experience. Preretirement anxiety is considered in terms of state anxiety (Spielberger, 1983) due to the transient nature of the retirement process. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobson, 1983) and Military Ethos Scale (MES; Cotton, 1980) scores collected from noncareer and career SMs are used to compare anxiety levels and military role identity. Military role identity is investigated according to the symbolic interactionism model of identity development (Burke, 1980) and the vocational-occupational (V-O) model of role orientation (Cotton, 1980). The V-O model, a refinement of Moskos' (1970) institutional-occupational model, asserts that vocationally oriented SMs are more committed to and motivated by traditional military values and roles, whereas occupationally oriented SMs are not. Correlational analysis identified a relationship between anxiety level and military role identity across length of service categories. This study demonstrates that noncareer SMs exhibit occupationally oriented values, where career SMs were vocationally oriented. Both career groups expressed significant preretirement anxiety levels during the preretirement process. The significance of this study and recommendations for future research are discussed.