It’s Not Academic, You’re in the Army Now: Adjustment to the Army as a Comparative Context for Adjustment to University

The presumed efficacy of authoritative parenting, supported by a consensus in previous research conducted in authoritative institutions, is tested empirically by investigating the transition to a more authoritarian environment—the Israeli army. Employing a model developed to investigate the transition to university, the present study examines how perceptions of parents’rearing styles and aspects of current relationships with parents affect adjustment to the army as measured by psychological well-being variables, as well as scores on the four facets of the Soldiers’Adaptation to the Army Scale (adapted from the Students’Adaptation to College Scale). A group of 144 Israeli male soldiers was tested at the beginning and end of 3 months of basic training. The results demonstrated that authoritatively reared children were at a disadvantage with regard to successful adjustment to the army. These soldiers were more depressed, experienced greater stress, and had lower self-esteem when compared with soldiers from authoritarian and permissive backgrounds. The results cast doubt on the generalized goodness of authoritative parenting, and instead suggest attention to dynamic relationships between person-related variables and the environmental context.