Summary:

There is a growing concern that the mental health of adolescents is worsening and that this deterioration may influence adolescents’ willingness and ability to complete military service. The purpose of this study is to investigate yearly relationships between self-reported mental health indicators and motivation for military service. To accomplish this, nationwide yearly percentile records from repeated cross-sectional records of Norwegian cohorts (N = 891,600) collected from 2009 to 2022 were evaluated. The results show that the number of adolescents with self-reported mental health diagnoses increased every year for both males and females. Well-being and coping decreased over time for females (but not males), although absolute levels were high throughout the study period. Despite evidence of worsening mental health and well-being, self-described motivation and aptitude for military service were largely stable over time for both genders. The negative trends in mental health are not associated with functional consequences for adolescents’ motivation and aptitude to complete military service.