Disparities in Debt

Abstract

In an era of rising college costs and stagnant grant-based student aid, many young adults rely on their parents' resources and student loans to pay for their postsecondary education. In this study I ask how parents' income and education are linked to young adults' student loan debt. I develop and test two perspectives regarding the functional form of the association between parents' income, parents' education, and student loan debt. I have four key findings. First, the relationship between parents' income and student loan debt is nonlinear, such that young adults from middle-income families have a higher risk for debt than do those from low-and high-income families. Second, young adults from college-educated and high-income families are relatively protected from debt. Third, the association between parents' socioeconomic status (SES) and debt is modified by postsecondary institutional characteristics and is strongest at private and high-cost institutions. Finally, the effect of parents' SES on debt varies across the debt distribution. Parents' SES is strongly predictive of entry into debt, but there are few differences conditional on going into debt. This suggests that socioeconomic disparities in debt are primarily driven by the probability of going into debt rather than differences among debtors. However, compared to their more advantaged counterparts, young adults from low-SES backgrounds have a higher risk of accruing debt burdens that exceed the national average.

Over-Indebtedness and Problem Gambling in a General Population Sample of Online Gamblers

“…(4,47)]. While some previous data indicated a protective role of higher education vis-à -vis debts (48), studies examining associations between the level of education and debts have presented somewhat ambiguous results (49). In the present study, it cannot be excluded that the surprising finding of a positive association between higher education and problem gambling may be due to characteristics r e l a t e d t o t h e p r e s e n t p o p u l a t i o n b e i n g o n l i n e gamblers, specifically.…”

National Trends in Federal Student Loan Borrowing by Income Group and First-Generation Status

“…Generally, lower-income students are more likely than their higher-income peers to borrow (Hillman, 2015). Similarly, first-generation college students are also more likely to borrow compared to their continuing-generation peers (Furquim, Glasener, Oster, McCall, & DesJardins, 2017;Houle, 2014). To explore how the likelihood of a student taking out a federal loan has changed over time across student groups, we conducted logistic regression using a binary measure of whether a student takes out a federal Title IV loan (excluding PLUS Loans, which are student loans available to the parents of dependent students) as our outcome, using data from NPSAS surveys administered to undergraduates in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 low-income (family income $29,999 or less in the survey year), low-to-moderate income ($30,000-$59,999), moderate-to-high income ($60,000-$99,999), and high income (family income of $100,000 or more).…”

Epstein's Model of Parental Involvement: Parent Perceptions in Urban Schools

“…This contradicts previous research findings which indicated that parents who had a higher education did not necessarily perceive that schools were doing better. However, a recent study conducted by Houle (2014) indicated that parents, who have chosen pathways, not including four-year degrees but technical backgrounds, can make just as much money as a parents with Master's degree. Additionally, research conducted by Noel et al (2013) indicated that parents of students living in a household with income above the poverty level are more likely to establish a positive home-to-school connection than parents of children living in a household at or below the poverty line.…”