To effectively monitor the needs of U.S. Army families, evaluate whether Army programs and services are reaching those most in need, and inform policy decisions affecting families, the Army needs feedback from family members, particularly spouses. The Today’s Army Spouse Panel gathers information from Army spouses to inform Army decisionmaking. In this report, the authors detail the methodology used to fully implement this panel.

Today's Army Spouse Panel Methodology

2018 and 2022 Cohorts

Carra S. Sims, Thomas E. Trail, Carolyn M. Rutter

ResearchPublished Oct 24, 2023

To effectively monitor the needs of U.S. Army families, evaluate whether Army programs and services are reaching those most in need, and inform policy decisions affecting families, the Army needs feedback from family members, particularly Army spouses. The Today's Army Spouse Panel (TASP) offers the opportunity for spouses of Army soldiers to provide valuable feedback for the Army to use in data-driven decisionmaking.

A panel based on a survey sample drawn in 2018, used for a TASP proof-of-concept study, was no longer representative of the Army spouse population in 2022 in terms of soldier pay grade, presence or absence of dependent children, and whether respondents were living in the continental United States or outside it. This report describes the methodology used to refresh the panel to be representative of active-component Army spouses.

Key Findings

  • The TASP was able to recruit a sample representative of the population of U.S. Army spouses in terms of pay grade, whether they have dependent children, and whether they have an address within the continental U.S. or outside of it.
  • To ensure that the TASP is representative of active-component Army spouses, the panel requires recruiting new members every other year, with a particular focus on adding spouses of newly enlisted soldiers and junior officers, as well as reweighting against an annually drawn population.

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Document Details

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Sims, Carra S., Thomas E. Trail, and Carolyn M. Rutter, Today's Army Spouse Panel Methodology: 2018 and 2022 Cohorts, RAND Corporation, RR-A2244-1, 2023. As of September 17, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2244-1.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Sims, Carra S., Thomas E. Trail, and Carolyn M. Rutter, Today's Army Spouse Panel Methodology: 2018 and 2022 Cohorts. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2023. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2244-1.html.
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