Comparing Student Service Member/Veteran and Civilian Student Undergraduate Characteristics and Perspectives: An Exploratory Quantitative Study
WCER Working Paper No. 2025-1
Ross J. Benbow, Xin Xie, and You-Geon Lee
February 2025, 26 pp.
ABSTRACT: Student service members/veterans (SSM/Vs)—defined as undergraduates in the U.S. military or who have military experience—have been an emergent group of adult learners in American 4-year universities. Because SSM/Vs diversify universities and are supported by significant public investments, their success is critical. Little quantitative research, however, has consistently focused on the question of whether military experience—as it is distinct from common adult student traits—significantly associates with student attributes and viewpoints research shows are important in college. Using survey data from SSM/Vs and civilian undergraduate students across four public universities (n=1,255), field theory, and multiple regression analyses, we explore correlations between student military experience and important undergraduate characteristics (commuter, first-generation, transfer, impairment, and full-time enrollment status, first-year college grades, hours employed, and financial stress) and perspectives (campus belonging, academic major belonging, and institutional satisfaction). After controlling for age and other influential covariates, results show that student military experience significantly correlates with commuter status, first-generation status, physical and cognitive impairment, full-time enrollment, fewer employment hours, and less financial stress, characteristics conceptualized as facets of field social position. Military experience also significantly correlates with lower campus belonging, lower academic major belonging, and lower institutional satisfaction, perspectives conceptualized as field constraints.
keywords: student service members/veterans, nontraditional students, higher education
