Do student loans delay marriage? Debt repayment and family formation in young adulthood

Can’t afford a baby? Debt and young Americans

“…Indeed even factors like class and race that have large effects on fertility have little effect on total fertility in recent years, which has converged across social groups, but rather influence timing and patterning (Sweeney and Raley, 2014). Similarly, in their analysis of debt and marriage, Bozick and Estacion (2014) find that debt has effects mainly in delaying marriage rather than encouraging youth to forego marriage altogether.…”

“…For many youth, the late teens to the mid-20s are a time of growing demand for spending – on education, on developing the resources for first jobs (such as transportation and clothing for work), and on setting up independent households – but slow growth in income. Debt may therefore be more important in enabling and constraining key transitions like fertility in the early years than later when financial lives may have become more secure (Bozick & Estacion, 2014). Conceptually, debt is most likely to exert shorter-term effects on the timing of large life decisions like fertility, similar to other factors that affect fertility, like postsecondary education (Brand & Davis, 2011).…”

“…Chiteji's analysis is also of an earlier cohort that was less exposed to debt than later cohorts coming of age after 2000. Young adult debt portfolios have shifted over time, becoming more dominated by student loans, which can have different effects on early life transitions than other unsecured debts such as credit card debt and than secured debt like mortgages (Addo, 2014; Bozick & Estacion, 2014; Houle, 2014). The transition to adulthood has long involved a transition to debt, but contemporary cohorts differ from past cohorts in having more complex debt-holdings.…”

“…One reason is that debt affects other transitions, such as marriage, to a greater extent for women than for men (Addo, 2014; Bozick & Estacion, 2014). In the case of student loans, debt may represent more of a conscious investment in future earnings potential for women (Caucutt, Guner, & Knowles 2002; Dwyer et al, 2013) and signal a rejection of traditional gender roles (McGill, 2014; Hodges & Budig, 2010).…”

Dreaming of the Kardashians: Media Content in the Dreams of US College Students

“…The anthropology majors among them understand themselves to be privileged members of the wealthiest nation on earth, and they carry this knowledge with a certain unease. Yet many will struggle with unprecedented levels of student loan debt, which combined with shrinking options in lucrative and meaningful employment, lack of job security, wage stagnation, and tightening credit markets, will force many to postpone marriage and family, as well as ownership of the "nice houses" of which they so often dream (Bozick and Estacion 2014;Xu et al 2015). They know that many recent college graduates wind up languishing in retail work at the mall or in serving positions at local restaurants.…”