Development of the Marine Security Guard Life Experiences Questionnaire

The Marine Security Guard MSG Battalion prepares students for assignments as Watchstanders and Detachment Commanders at over 140 embassies, consulates and legations throughout the world. Students with widely varying probabilities of passing are admitted into the MSG school. Approximately 30 of the entering students do not graduate from the school. In addition, each year 5- 10 of those serving as MSGs are relieved from duty. PERSEREC has been supporting the MSG Battalion in the development and evaluation of screening, psychological assessment, and continuing evaluation procedures since June 1987. One of the earliest tasks was to review and improve measures that were currently in use at the MSG school for assessing and selecting marines for MSG duty. This review disclosed that considerable weight in the selection process was given to background data as recorded on a student questionnaire. This questionnaire contained open-ended responses to questions concerning such issues as prior alcohol use, arrests, hobbies, high school activities, etc. While useful for clinical insight, responses in an open-ended format are difficult to use in a systematic way to predict future behavior. Accordingly, the decision was reached by the MSG Battalion that a biodata questionnaire in multiple-choice format should be developed and validated for use in screening Marines at the MSG school.